Short Interest in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Declines By 21.8%

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was the target of a significant decrease in short interest during the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 7,910,000 shares, a decrease of 21.8% from the February 13th total of 10,120,000 shares. Approximately 3.9% of the company’s stock are sold short. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,830,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is currently 4.3 days.

NetApp Stock Down 1.1 %

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $1.02 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $92.26. 2,552,908 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,725,763. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $114.43 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $118.83. The stock has a market cap of $18.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.96, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 1 year low of $89.88 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.25%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Barclays lowered their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. M&T Bank Corp raised its stake in NetApp by 4.8% during the 4th quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,485,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares in the last quarter. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth about $395,000. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 120.7% in the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,998,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 20.9% during the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after buying an additional 7,318 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.