Investors Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Thursday. Stock traders bought 12,474 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 251% compared to the average volume of 3,554 call options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One 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, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Aviso Wealth Management increased its position in NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of 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 boosted its holdings in shares of 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 buying an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, OLD National Bancorp IN grew its position in 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.

NetApp Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $115.92 on Friday. NetApp has a 1 year low of $83.62 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $121.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $123.64. The company has a market cap of $23.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.31, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

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.