NetApp Target of Unusually High Options Trading (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was the target of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Traders purchased 12,474 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 251% compared to the average daily volume of 3,554 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Aviso Wealth Management increased its stake in NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings in NetApp by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co raised its position in NetApp by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.6% in the second quarter. Oregon Public Employees Retirement Fund now owns 17,754 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,287,000 after purchasing an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the third quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $431,000 after buying an additional 118 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have commented on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Down 0.6 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.75 during mid-day trading on Thursday, hitting $115.33. 485,297 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,843,281. 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 stock has a fifty day moving average price of $121.23 and a 200-day moving average price of $123.69. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $23.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.20, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted 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. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.80%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

About NetApp

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.