NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Up 6% – Here’s What Happened

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) rose 6% during trading on Friday . The stock traded as high as $192.94 and last traded at $194.6310. Approximately 105,572 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 96% from the average daily volume of 2,690,068 shares. The stock had previously closed at $183.60.

Key Headlines Impacting NetApp

Here are the key news stories impacting NetApp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Zacks upgraded NetApp from “Hold” to “Strong Buy,” adding to the bullish momentum around the data-storage company. NTAP was also included in Zacks’ September 10 list of Rank #1 momentum stocks. Zacks Best Momentum Stock to Buy for September 10
• Positive Sentiment: Recent earnings significantly exceeded expectations: NetApp reported quarterly EPS of $2.58 versus the $2.12 consensus estimate and revenue of $2.03 billion versus expectations of $1.84 billion. Revenue increased 29.9% year over year, supporting investor optimism about its enhanced product strategy and growth outlook. What Comes Next for NetApp After Enhanced Product Strategy and Record Earnings
• Positive Sentiment: Northland Securities raised multiple earnings forecasts, including FY2027 EPS to $8.14 from $7.11 and FY2028 EPS to $9.15 from $7.85. It also increased estimates for Q2 2027, Q3 2027, and Q4 2027, while maintaining an “Outperform” rating and a $187 price target. These revisions suggest stronger anticipated profitability, although the target offers limited upside from the reported trading level.
• Neutral Sentiment: Short-interest data showed zero reported shares short as of September 10, unchanged from the prior reported period. Because the figures appear incomplete or invalid, they provide no meaningful signal about potential short-covering demand or bearish positioning.
• Neutral Sentiment: NetApp is currently a heavily watched stock on Zacks, which may increase near-term trading activity but does not by itself indicate a change in the company’s fundamentals. NetApp Is a Trending Stock

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on NTAP. Weiss Ratings restated a “buy (b-)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, September 4th. Zacks Research upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus boosted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $192.07.

NetApp Stock Performance

The stock has a market cap of $38.42 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.59, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.44. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $181.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $143.50. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. On average, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at $7,246,504.92. The trade was a 51.38% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth O’Callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total transaction of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 30,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,872,164.54. This trade represents a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 54,072 shares of company stock valued at $8,556,040 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth approximately $458,060,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $14,869,000. Handelsbanken Fonder AB increased its stake in NetApp by 106.8% in the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 262,732 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,136,000 after purchasing an additional 135,715 shares during the period. National Pension Service raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 180,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $19,374,000 after buying an additional 21,643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Swedbank AB boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 22.0% during the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 97,086 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $10,397,000 after buying an additional 17,520 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds and public clouds. Its offerings are designed to support enterprise workloads such as databases, business applications, artificial intelligence and virtualized computing.

The company’s portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid storage systems, cloud storage services, data management software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.