NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) to Issue $0.52 Quarterly Dividend

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) declared a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of 0.52 per share by the data storage provider on Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.08%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th.

NetApp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% annually over the last three years. NetApp has a payout ratio of 24.3% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NetApp to earn $6.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.3%.

NetApp Stock Down 15.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $100.00 on Friday. The company has a fifty day moving average of $119.85 and a 200-day moving average of $121.86. The company has a market capitalization of $20.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a 52-week low of $88.49 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.07.

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.