NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Sells $424,518.22 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $129.03 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $130.87. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $114.16 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $100.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm has a market cap of $26.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.17 and a beta of 1.25.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. NetApp’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.61%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 43.10%.

NetApp announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Susquehanna raised their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup lifted their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, May 21st. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $117.81.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 65.8% during the 4th quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after purchasing an additional 35,172 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 26.1% during the 4th quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 317,073 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,855,000 after purchasing an additional 65,644 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 24.1% during the 4th quarter. Vest Financial LLC now owns 147,518 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,005,000 after acquiring an additional 28,609 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $268,000 after acquiring an additional 211 shares during the period. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after acquiring an additional 950,204 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by 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.