Insider Selling: NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) EVP Sells 452 Shares of Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $117.90 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $83.80 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $120.88 and its 200 day moving average is $121.98. The company has a market cap of $23.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.67, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were 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 was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at about $35,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

About NetApp

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.