Royal Bank of Canada Cuts Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Royal Bank of Canada reduced its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 7.8% in the 1st quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,354,220 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 114,625 shares during the quarter. Royal Bank of Canada owned about 0.69% of NetApp worth $138,659,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $458,060,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its holdings in NetApp by 127.0% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $374,549,000 after acquiring an additional 2,046,912 shares during the period. SG Americas Securities LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 378.9% during the 1st quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 1,329,475 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $136,125,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051,863 shares in the last quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 94.6% during the 3rd quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 1,823,292 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $215,987,000 after purchasing an additional 886,485 shares in the last quarter. Finally, SEB Asset Management AB acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth $89,977,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at approximately $130,800. This trade represents a 20.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the sale, the president owned 46,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. This represents a 51.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,642 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Argus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Wedbush raised their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.33.

NetApp Stock Up 0.4%

NTAP stock opened at $173.98 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $162.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.57. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 27.36, a P/E/G ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $93.69 and a 12 month high of $192.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.70%.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.