NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian Sells 8,500 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total value of $1,011,840.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,755,705.60. This trade represents a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

George Kurian also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Tuesday, January 21st, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00.
• On Monday, December 16th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $124.55 on Friday. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.80 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $120.05 and a 200-day moving average of $121.84. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates 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 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in NetApp by 9.2% in the 4th quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,268,000 after purchasing an additional 113,360 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC raised its position in NetApp by 232.2% in the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $831,000 after purchasing an additional 4,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.33.

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.