NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO Sells $1,071,935.00 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

NetApp Stock Down 0.6 %

NetApp stock opened at $119.01 on Thursday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $123.60 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $119.85. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $24.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.65, a P/E/G ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.75%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup increased their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at approximately $473,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 60.5% in the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 527,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $55,355,000 after buying an additional 198,627 shares during the period. National Bank of Canada FI grew its position in NetApp by 221.9% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,731,000 after buying an additional 207,968 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. increased its stake in NetApp by 63.9% during the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 343,218 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,025,000 after acquiring an additional 133,813 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NetApp

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.