Royal Fund Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP – Free Report) by 34.6% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 10,497 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,700 shares during the period. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $2,205,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.
Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $1,395,423,000. First Trust Advisors LP increased its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $374,549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $258,093,000. Finally, Bank of America Corp DE purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $235,682,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In related news, Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $194.04, for a total transaction of $684,185.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,264 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,155,866.56. This trade represents a 17.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total transaction of $533,283.84. Following the completion of the transaction, the president owned 46,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,514,454.40. This trade represents a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 173,524 shares of company stock valued at $35,018,126. 0.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.
Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth
NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus set a $225.00 price target on NetApp in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Susquehanna lifted their price target on NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. UBS Group boosted their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup reduced their price objective on NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $213.20.
Get Our Latest Stock Report on NetApp
NetApp Stock Performance
NASDAQ NTAP traded up $2.97 during trading on Friday, reaching $215.48. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 1,699,681 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,543,025. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24. The firm has a market cap of $42.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $93.69 and a twelve month high of $240.87. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $202.99 and its 200-day moving average price is $167.11.
NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Free Report) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current fiscal year.
NetApp Dividend Announcement
The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 29.34%.
About NetApp
NetApp, Inc is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises data centers, public clouds and hybrid environments. Its offerings support enterprise applications, artificial intelligence workloads, business analytics, backup and disaster recovery.
The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid-flash storage systems, the ONTAP data management operating system, StorageGRID object storage and Keystone storage-as-a-service.
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