NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Deepak Ahuja Sells 3,526 Shares of Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.04, for a total value of $684,185.04. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 16,264 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,155,866.56. This represents a 17.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

NetApp Trading Up 0.8%

NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $1.56 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $191.49. 1,917,895 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,695,069. The firm has a market capitalization of $37.61 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $183.07 and its 200-day moving average is $145.44. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $209.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.1%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 29.34%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus set a $225.00 target price on NetApp in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $180.00 to $206.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, September 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $193.86.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $1,395,423,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 9.4% during the second quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,444,057 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $687,762,000 after acquiring an additional 383,701 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $458,060,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $374,549,000 after acquiring an additional 2,046,912 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds and public clouds. Its offerings are designed to support enterprise workloads such as databases, business applications, artificial intelligence and virtualized computing.

The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid storage systems, cloud storage services, data management software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.