Insider Selling: NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO Sells 8,500 Shares of Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink.

George Kurian also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, November 18th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00.
• On Monday, October 21st, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00.

NetApp Stock Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $118.34 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market capitalization of $24.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.68 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.08.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have commented on NTAP. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Northland Securities upped their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 18.3% during the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,676 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $578,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares during the period. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 19.6% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 433,616 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $55,009,000 after purchasing an additional 71,165 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 343.1% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 227,933 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,152,000 after purchasing an additional 176,495 shares during the period. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $160,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,998 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $988,000 after purchasing an additional 459 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.