Elizabeth M. O’callahan Sells 705 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link.

NetApp Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $126.93 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.12 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.77 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $123.03 and its 200 day simple moving average is $118.77. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Creative Planning raised its position in NetApp by 8.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,001 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,211,000 after purchasing an additional 2,073 shares during the period. Empirical Asset Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 8.6% in the third quarter. Empirical Asset Management LLC now owns 2,913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $360,000 after purchasing an additional 230 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $109,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter valued at about $75,000. Finally, MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 204.4% during the third quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 36,744 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,538,000 after acquiring an additional 24,675 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.