NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Shares Sold by Empowered Funds LLC

Empowered Funds LLC trimmed its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 13.0% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 162,140 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 24,247 shares during the period. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $16,602,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Park Square Financial Group LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 68.7% during the 4th quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $30,000. Roble Belko & Company Inc purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $31,000. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 176.3% in the fourth quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 315 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $174.53 on Wednesday. The company’s 50-day moving average is $160.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.61. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $192.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.44, a PEG ratio of 3.10 and a beta of 1.46.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.70%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of several research reports. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen cut NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Northland Securities increased their price target on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.33.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total value of $38,495.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $186,488.10. The trade was a 17.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the president directly owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. This trade represents a 51.38% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,642 over the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.