NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock: Insider Carrie Palin Sells 5,000 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Carrie Palin sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.43, for a total transaction of $1,082,150.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 6,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,441,423.80. The trade was a 42.88% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

NetApp Stock Up 2.1%

NetApp stock traded up $4.68 during midday trading on Tuesday, hitting $228.45. 2,842,584 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 2,700,326. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $93.69 and a 1 year high of $231.90. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.16. The firm has a market cap of $44.87 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.43 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $193.77 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $155.76.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%.The company’s revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm 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, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 29.34%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Private Client Services LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth $662,000. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 46.1% in the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,111 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $443,000 after buying an additional 666 shares during the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 11.2% in the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 12,480 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,931,000 after buying an additional 1,261 shares during the last quarter. Andra AP fonden boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 168.2% in the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 106,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $16,461,000 after buying an additional 66,711 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 145.1% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 539,405 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $83,478,000 after buying an additional 319,332 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $200.00 to $220.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, September 30th. Susquehanna increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Northland Securities raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, seven have assigned a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $202.53.

About NetApp

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.