USA Financial Formulas Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 4,687 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $985,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $1,395,423,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 9.4% during the 2nd 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 valued at $687,762,000 after acquiring an additional 383,701 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the 1st 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. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,129,773 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $218,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30,559 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Zacks Research raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. Weiss Ratings raised NetApp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Evercore upgraded NetApp from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, October 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $213.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $203.80 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $201.97 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $163.26. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $240.87. The firm has a market capitalization of $40.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.46.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 50,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $209.95, for a total transaction of $10,497,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 218,537 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $45,881,843.15. This trade represents a 18.62% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Carrie Palin sold 5,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.43, for a total transaction of $1,082,150.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 6,660 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,441,423.80. This trade represents a 42.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 173,524 shares of company stock worth $35,018,126 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Profile

NetApp, Inc develops intelligent data infrastructure and data management solutions for enterprises, service providers, and government organizations. The company helps customers store, manage, protect, and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid multicloud infrastructures.

Its portfolio includes enterprise storage systems, all-flash arrays, cloud-connected storage, object storage, and data management software. NetApp’s offerings include the ONTAP data management operating system, AFF and ASA storage systems, StorageGRID object storage, and BlueXP, a platform designed to help customers manage data and storage resources across multiple environments.