Empirical Finance LLC Grows Stock Holdings in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Empirical Finance LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 77.0% in the 2nd quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm owned 12,913 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 5,617 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $1,998,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its position in shares of NetApp by 15,681.5% during the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 48,620,175 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,524,458,000 after purchasing an additional 48,312,092 shares during the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $1,395,423,000. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $458,060,000. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its stake in NetApp by 127.0% in 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 buying an additional 2,046,912 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have commented on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $210.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Wall Street Zen raised shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Evercore set a $210.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Finally, Susquehanna boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $192.07.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $189.13 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.24 and a quick ratio of 1.16. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $209.06. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $180.03 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $142.34. The stock has a market capitalization of $37.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.68, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%.The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $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. Analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.34 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given 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 yield of 1.1%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total transaction of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,872,164.54. This represents a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total transaction of $533,283.84. Following the sale, the president owned 46,530 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,514,454.40. This 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 three months, insiders sold 54,072 shares of company stock worth $8,556,040. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.