Elizabeth M. O’callahan Sells 451 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

NetApp Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $116.69 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. 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 company’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.02 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.97.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third 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 stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth about $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays boosted their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities raised their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

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.