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 the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website.

NetApp Trading Up 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $1.77 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $116.69. The stock had a trading volume of 1,889,875 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,361,947. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.80 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $121.01 and a 200-day moving average price of $123.05. 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 stock has a market cap of $23.72 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.45, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal 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 given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Barclays raised 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. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its position in NetApp by 59.6% in the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after buying an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the period. APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $48,074,000. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 38.5% during the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $152,270,000 after purchasing an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA raised its holdings in NetApp by 926.1% during the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after buying an additional 256,028 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.