Insider Selling: NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO Sells 8,500 Shares of Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total transaction of $918,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 288,305 shares of the company's stock, valued at $31,160,004.40. This represents a 2.86% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

George Kurian also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, June 16th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total transaction of $865,130.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $0.11 during trading on Friday, reaching $104.77. 434,688 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,094,583. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.25 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.99 billion, a PE ratio of 18.43, a P/E/G ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.42. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $103.68 and a 200-day simple moving average of $102.61. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.05% and a return on equity of 126.96%. The firm's revenue was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.80 EPS. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Shareholders of record on Thursday, July 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.99%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, July 3rd. NetApp's payout ratio is 36.62%.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 375.0% in the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $25,000. Olde Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at about $29,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 54.9% in the 1st quarter. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. now owns 350 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $31,000 after buying an additional 124 shares during the period. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its position in NetApp by 929.6% during the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, June 2nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a "neutral" rating and issued a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 30th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a report on Friday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.86.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.