NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO Sells $7,398,150.00 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 37,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $199.95, for a total value of $7,398,150.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 268,537 shares in the company, valued at approximately $53,693,973.15. This represents a 12.11% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

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

• On Monday, September 21st, George Kurian sold 13,000 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $200.01, for a total transaction of $2,600,130.00.
• On Monday, September 14th, George Kurian sold 40,000 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.42, for a total transaction of $7,656,800.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $210.08 on Thursday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $190.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.21. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $216.81. The company has a market cap of $41.26 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.63, a PEG ratio of 2.25 and a beta of 1.44.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

NetApp News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting NetApp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target after NetApp’s INSIGHT event, saying the company’s artificial-intelligence opportunity could support faster growth. Analysts also reacted positively to NetApp’s new AI-factory architecture, which is designed to improve GPU utilization and provide aggregate throughput of up to 100 terabytes per second. BofA raises NetApp target after INSIGHT event
• Positive Sentiment: NetApp and Oracle announced a planned fully managed storage service native to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. The offering will bring NetApp ONTAP data-management capabilities to Oracle customers running demanding AI and enterprise workloads, expanding NetApp’s cloud distribution opportunity. NetApp and Oracle cloud storage partnership
• Positive Sentiment: A strategic collaboration with Supermicro will combine NetApp storage with Supermicro’s AI-optimized computing systems for AI factories, enterprise deployments, neoclouds and sovereign-AI projects. NetApp also introduced expanded hybrid-cloud, zero-copy data activation and agentic-AI capabilities, reinforcing its positioning in AI infrastructure. NetApp and Supermicro AI collaboration
• Positive Sentiment: Keystone Sovereign expands data-residency and operational controls for regulated European customers, potentially supporting growth in markets where data sovereignty and compliance are major purchasing requirements. NetApp Keystone Sovereign
• Neutral Sentiment: NetApp said it intends to expand its partnership with SAP and explore integration with SAP Cloud Infrastructure, but reports indicated there is not yet a firm commercial agreement. The opportunity is strategically meaningful but remains less certain than the Oracle deal. NetApp SAP partnership update
• Negative Sentiment: One analysis argued that NTAP’s risk-reward profile is no longer compelling after its strong advance, highlighting elevated expectations and valuation near record levels. NetApp valuation analysis
• Negative Sentiment: CEO George Kurian sold 37,000 shares for approximately $7.4 million, following additional sales earlier in September. While insider sales can be routine, the transactions may temper sentiment after the stock’s substantial rally. NetApp CEO share sale

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,395,423,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew 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 worth $687,762,000 after purchasing an additional 383,701 shares in the last quarter. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $458,060,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during 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 purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Wedbush raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $194.86.

NetApp Company 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.