NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock: Insider George Kurian Sells 37,000 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 37,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $199.95, for a total transaction of $7,398,150.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 268,537 shares in the company, valued at $53,693,973.15. This represents a 12.11% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

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

• On Monday, September 21st, George Kurian sold 13,000 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.01, for a total value of $2,600,130.00.
• On Monday, September 14th, George Kurian sold 40,000 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.42, for a total value of $7,656,800.00.

NetApp Trading Up 1.6%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded up $3.26 during trading on Monday, hitting $204.41. 2,946,459 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,682,226. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.83, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $187.90 and a 200-day moving average price of $150.87. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $209.06.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,395,423,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth about $458,060,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $374,549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $258,093,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 31st. Citigroup lowered their target price on NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $193.86.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds and public clouds. Its offerings are designed to support enterprise workloads such as databases, business applications, artificial intelligence and virtualized computing.

The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid storage systems, cloud storage services, data management software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.