NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Stock: Vise Technologies Inc. Raises Stake

Vise Technologies Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 76.3% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 11,318 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,900 shares during the period. Vise Technologies Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,378,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth $1,395,423,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised 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 worth $374,549,000 after buying an additional 2,046,912 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc bought a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $258,093,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE bought a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $235,682,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have weighed in on NTAP. UBS Group raised their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Daiwa Securities Group boosted their price objective on NetApp from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 16th. Cantor Fitzgerald upgraded shares of NetApp to an “overweight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 7th. Guggenheim started coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, October 26th. They issued a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 30th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $205.24.

NetApp Trading Down 9.7%

Shares of NTAP opened at $169.38 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $93.69 and a fifty-two week high of $240.87. The firm has a market cap of $33.27 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.89, a PEG ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.52. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $204.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $151.55. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share 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 business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter 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, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $237.42, for a total value of $237,420.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 29,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,060,158.54. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 10,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $210.04, for a total value of $2,100,400.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 208,537 shares in the company, valued at $43,801,111.48. This trade represents a 4.58% 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. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises data centers, public clouds and hybrid environments. Its offerings support enterprise applications, artificial intelligence workloads, business analytics, backup and disaster recovery.

The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, the ONTAP data management operating system, StorageGRID object storage and Keystone storage-as-a-service.