NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) President Cesar Cernuda Sells 22,000 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink.

NetApp Stock Down 0.4 %

NTAP stock traded down $0.41 during trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.08. 1,355,395 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,839,953. 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 stock has a market cap of $23.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a price-to-earnings-growth 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 firm’s 50 day moving average is $121.36 and its two-hundred day moving average is $123.82.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

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

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

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.