NetApp, Inc. $NTAP Shares Bought by Kestra Advisory Services LLC

Kestra Advisory Services LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 33.2% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 23,286 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 5,800 shares during the period. Kestra Advisory Services LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,892,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. BlackRock Inc. bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,395,423,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 9.4% in the second 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 purchasing an additional 383,701 shares in the last quarter. First Trust Advisors LP raised its holdings in NetApp by 127.0% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $374,549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $258,093,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on NTAP. Citigroup reduced their target price on NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus set a $225.00 price objective on shares of NetApp and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, September 11th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $180.00 to $210.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 16th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $205.24.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $186.08 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $36.55 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.25, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.52. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $203.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $153.57. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $240.87.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total value of $533,283.84. Following the transaction, the president directly owned 46,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $9,514,454.40. This represents a 5.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.04, for a total value of $684,185.04. Following the sale, the director directly owned 16,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,155,866.56. This represents a 17.82% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 173,524 shares of company stock worth $35,000,256. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc. develops data storage and data management technologies for businesses and other organizations. Its offerings support workloads across on-premises infrastructure, public cloud environments and hybrid settings, with services for storing, managing, protecting and moving data. The company’s portfolio includes its ONTAP data management software, all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, object storage, and cloud storage and data services. NetApp also provides tools to help customers manage data across different environments and offers infrastructure through its Keystone storage-as-a-service model.