Royal Bank of Canada Lowers Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Royal Bank of Canada cut its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.8% in the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The fund owned 1,354,220 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 114,625 shares during the period. Royal Bank of Canada’s holdings in NetApp were worth $138,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $458,060,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in 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 purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 378.9% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,329,475 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $136,125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051,863 shares during the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership increased its stake in NetApp by 94.6% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,823,292 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $215,987,000 after purchasing an additional 886,485 shares during the last quarter. Finally, SEB Asset Management AB purchased a new position in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $89,977,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $160.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $130,800. The trade was a 20.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.92, for a total value of $170,920.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 31,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,349,283.24. The trade was a 3.10% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,642 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $173.98 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $192.83. The company has a 50 day moving average of $162.10 and a two-hundred day moving average of $124.57. The company has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.46.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.93 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.70%.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.