George Kurian Sells 8,500 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $126.22 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $25.98 billion, a PE ratio of 27.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.16 and a beta of 1.27. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $123.29 and its 200-day simple moving average is $105.55. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Bank of America increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $117.81.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 7.3% during the third quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 3,209.9% during the fourth quarter. Exchange Traded Concepts LLC now owns 4,998 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $441,000 after buying an additional 4,847 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its holdings in NetApp by 26.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after buying an additional 65,644 shares during the period. Range Financial Group LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 46.9% during the fourth quarter. Range Financial Group LLC now owns 5,874 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $518,000 after buying an additional 1,876 shares during the period. Finally, Raymond James Trust N.A. increased its holdings in NetApp by 5.2% during the fourth quarter. Raymond James Trust N.A. now owns 4,798 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $423,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.