Insider Selling: NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO Sells $2,600,130.00 in Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 13,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $200.01, for a total transaction of $2,600,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 305,537 shares in the company, valued at $61,110,455.37. This trade represents a 4.08% 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.

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

• On Monday, September 14th, George Kurian sold 40,000 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $191.42, for a total transaction of $7,656,800.00.

NetApp Trading Up 1.8%

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $3.42 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $196.33. 1,649,001 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,689,500. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $209.06. The firm has a market capitalization of $38.56 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.44. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $185.72 and its 200-day moving average price is $148.82. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%.The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.15 earnings per share. The firm’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, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business 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 $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.34%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Argus set a $225.00 price objective on NetApp in a research note on Friday, September 11th. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $180.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Finally, TD Cowen reissued a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $193.86.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $536,000 after acquiring an additional 101 shares in the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. MRWM Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the 1st quarter. MRWM Advisors LLC now owns 6,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $696,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 2.4% in the 1st quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC now owns 5,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $571,000 after purchasing an additional 131 shares during the period. Finally, Cozad Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 7.1% during the 1st quarter. Cozad Asset Management Inc. now owns 2,175 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $223,000 after buying an additional 145 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.