Stance Capital LLC Buys New Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Stance Capital LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm bought 22,882 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $2,438,000. NetApp accounts for about 0.9% of Stance Capital LLC’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 22nd largest position.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,810,772 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $192,938,000 after acquiring an additional 66,045 shares during the last quarter. Patton Fund Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth about $265,000. Aurora Investment Counsel purchased a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,337,000. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. raised its position in NetApp by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 814,697 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $71,563,000 after purchasing an additional 122,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd lifted its holdings in NetApp by 119.3% in the 1st quarter. Dynamic Technology Lab Private Ltd now owns 5,869 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after buying an additional 3,193 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $125.00 to $134.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Northland Securities set a $137.00 target price on shares of NetApp and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, August 29th. Finally, William Blair restated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, October 16th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.00, for a total value of $119,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,628 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,692,732. This represents a 4.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.91, for a total value of $1,075,462.50. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 274,938 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,792,629.58. The trade was a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 11,183 shares of company stock valued at $1,359,691. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

NetApp Trading Down 2.9%

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $115.66 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $127.78. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.52, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.30. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $114.67 and its 200 day simple moving average is $111.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $22.91 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.11, a PEG ratio of 2.56 and a beta of 1.42.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The data storage provider reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.17. NetApp had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 121.28%. The business had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.87 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.750-8.050 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.010-2.110 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 2nd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 36.17%.

About NetApp

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.