Insider Selling: NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO Sells 8,500 Shares of Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

George Kurian also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Monday, November 18th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00.
• On Monday, October 21st, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $118.45 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.77, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.62 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $122.35 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.03.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter valued at about $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.