NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Short Interest Update

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was the target of a large decline in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 5,180,000 shares, a decline of 28.0% from the March 15th total of 7,190,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.7 days. Currently, 2.5% of the company’s shares are short sold.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total value of $1,540,050.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 31,871 shares of company stock valued at $3,262,645. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Wellington Management Group LLP raised its position in NetApp by 70.3% in the 1st quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 8,329,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $691,339,000 after purchasing an additional 3,439,053 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $232,502,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in NetApp by 57.5% during the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $497,556,000 after buying an additional 2,059,574 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 254.8% during the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,905,000 after buying an additional 1,654,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TD Asset Management Inc raised its position in NetApp by 127.0% during the 4th quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $149,720,000 after buying an additional 950,204 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $3.05 during trading on Friday, hitting $101.81. 1,346,823 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,610,485. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.14, a PEG ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a current ratio of 1.15 and a quick ratio of 1.11. NetApp has a 12-month low of $60.92 and a 12-month high of $112.48. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $97.73 and its 200-day moving average price is $87.63.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.02 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th will be given a $0.50 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.96%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 45.45%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the stock. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, March 5th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $97.94.

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.