NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Shares Sold by Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.

Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc. decreased its position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 427,726 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 13,655 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Group Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $89,857,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,395,423,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its position in NetApp by 9.4% in the 2nd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,444,057 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $687,762,000 after acquiring an additional 383,701 shares during the period. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in NetApp by 127.0% in the 1st 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. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its stake in NetApp by 1.5% during the 1st quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,129,773 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $218,065,000 after acquiring an additional 30,559 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on the company. Zacks Research upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. Wedbush increased their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Cantor Fitzgerald raised NetApp to an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Guggenheim began coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, October 26th. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.24.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Elizabeth O’Callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $237.42, for a total transaction of $237,420.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 29,737 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,060,158.54. This trade represents a 3.25% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Carrie Palin sold 5,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $216.43, for a total transaction of $1,082,150.00. Following the transaction, the director owned 6,660 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,441,423.80. This trade represents a 42.88% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 173,524 shares of company stock worth $35,018,126 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 7.0%

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $185.26 on Tuesday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $93.69 and a 1 year high of $240.87. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $205.03 and its 200-day moving average is $150.41. The stock has a market cap of $36.39 billion, a PE ratio of 26.13, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.41 and a beta of 1.46.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%. The business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

NetApp Profile

NetApp, Inc is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises data centers, public clouds and hybrid environments. Its offerings support enterprise applications, artificial intelligence workloads, business analytics, backup and disaster recovery.

The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, the ONTAP data management operating system, StorageGRID object storage and Keystone storage-as-a-service.