Thomas Michael Nevens Sells 3,334 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

NetApp Trading Up 0.5 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $128.43 on Thursday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.43 billion, a PE ratio of 27.68, a P/E/G ratio of 5.17 and a beta of 1.25. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $113.61 and its 200 day moving average is $100.63. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $130.87. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $1.20 EPS. Research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.62%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 43.10%.

NetApp declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. J.Safra Asset Management Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the first quarter worth about $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth approximately $28,000. ORG Partners LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 58.7% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Argus raised their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.81.

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.