Insider Selling: NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Sells $684,185.04 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of the firm’s 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 owned 16,264 shares in the company, valued at $3,155,866.56. This trade represents a 17.82% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $197.79 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.85 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.90, a PEG ratio of 2.12 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $184.67 and a 200 day moving average price of $147.13. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $93.69 and a 52 week high of $209.06. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%.The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.15 earnings per share. 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 research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Investors of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.34%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. West Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $37,000. Roble Belko & Company Inc acquired a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Elyxium Wealth LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. Bell Investment Advisors Inc purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $55,000. Finally, Compass Financial Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $70,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. Zacks Research raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Susquehanna boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, September 4th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $193.86.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds and public clouds. Its offerings are designed to support enterprise workloads such as databases, business applications, artificial intelligence and virtualized computing.

The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid storage systems, cloud storage services, data management software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.