NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Hits New 1-Year High – Here’s Why

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)’s share price hit a new 52-week high on Wednesday. The stock traded as high as $233.72 and last traded at $233.1020, with a volume of 34238 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $228.45.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and set a $240.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $199.00 to $219.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Evercore upgraded NetApp from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target on the stock in a report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Wedbush raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $213.20.

NetApp Trading Up 2.5%

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The company has a market capitalization of $45.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 33.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $194.84 and a 200 day moving average price of $156.66.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 29.34%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, Director Carrie Palin sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $216.43, for a total transaction of $1,082,150.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 6,660 shares in the company, valued at $1,441,423.80. The trade was a 42.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total value of $1,159,547.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 7,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,291.87. This trade represents a 43.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 173,524 shares of company stock valued at $34,951,626 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Roble Belko & Company Inc acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $37,000. University of Texas Texas AM Investment Management Co. bought a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $51,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Compass Financial Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $70,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc develops intelligent data infrastructure and data management solutions for enterprises, service providers, and government organizations. The company helps customers store, manage, protect, and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid multicloud infrastructures.

Its portfolio includes enterprise storage systems, all-flash arrays, cloud-connected storage, object storage, and data management software. NetApp’s offerings include the ONTAP data management operating system, AFF and ASA storage systems, StorageGRID object storage, and BlueXP, a platform designed to help customers manage data and storage resources across multiple environments.