First Trust Advisors LP Acquires 2,046,912 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 127.0% during the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP owned about 1.85% of NetApp worth $374,549,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the business. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 38.3% during the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth about $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 9.9% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,986,000 after acquiring an additional 4,232 shares during the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia boosted its stake in NetApp by 7.3% in the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 12.7% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 2,277 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 2.9%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $165.76 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.06, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.46. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $155.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $121.40. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $93.69 and a 1 year 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 posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.NetApp’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.93 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 32.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total transaction of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 46,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. The trade was a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.92, for a total transaction of $170,920.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,349,283.24. This represents a 3.10% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,642 in the last quarter. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday. Susquehanna increased their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Argus increased their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Northland Securities boosted their target price on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price target on NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.33.

NetApp Profile

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.