KBC Group NV Sells 179,011 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

KBC Group NV lowered its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 20.4% during the second quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The institutional investor owned 697,408 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 179,011 shares during the quarter. KBC Group NV’s holdings in NetApp were worth $74,309,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Boston Partners grew its holdings in NetApp by 108.9% in the second quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,947,200 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $313,997,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536,339 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 4,687.6% in the 1st quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 1,068,694 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $93,874,000 after purchasing an additional 1,046,372 shares in the last quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt grew its stake in NetApp by 1,230.3% during the 2nd quarter. Livforsakringsbolaget Skandia Omsesidigt now owns 1,007,591 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $107,359,000 after buying an additional 931,850 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,375,363,000 after buying an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 18.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,546,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $311,529,000 after buying an additional 560,218 shares during 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 recently issued reports on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, October 16th. Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.40.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.00, for a total transaction of $119,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,628 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,692,732. This trade represents a 4.23% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total transaction of $94,936.73. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 20,029 shares of company stock worth $2,338,294 over the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $110.42 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.31. The firm has a market cap of $22.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $71.84 and a one year high of $135.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $119.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $108.99.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.35). NetApp had a return on equity of 123.24% and a net margin of 17.77%.The business had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.56 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.9%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 36.75%.

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.