NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Down 4.7% – Time to Sell?

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) shares dropped 4.7% during trading on Friday . The company traded as low as $113.95 and last traded at $114.63. Approximately 594,086 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 71% from the average daily volume of 2,046,410 shares. The stock had previously closed at $120.31.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Argus restated a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Bank of America boosted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $121.40.

NetApp Stock Down 5.3%

The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. The firm has a market cap of $22.74 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 20.13, a PEG ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $115.80 and a two-hundred day moving average of $103.63.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.54 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.24% and a net margin of 17.77%.NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.56 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 36.75%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total value of $123,670.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 23,628 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,922,074.76. This represents a 4.06% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total value of $94,936.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,243,874 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $281,093,000. Boston Partners increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 108.9% in the 2nd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,947,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $313,997,000 after buying an additional 1,536,339 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 4,687.6% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,068,694 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $93,874,000 after buying an additional 1,046,372 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 16.8% in the 2nd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,112,316 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $756,665,000 after buying an additional 1,024,626 shares during the period. Finally, Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 1,230.3% in the 2nd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,007,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $107,359,000 after buying an additional 931,850 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.