NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Trading Down 2.8% – Should You Sell?

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) fell 2.8% during mid-day trading on Wednesday . The company traded as low as $125.94 and last traded at $125.94. 204,680 shares were traded during trading, a decline of 89% from the average session volume of 1,849,778 shares. The stock had previously closed at $129.60.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Down 5.2 %

The stock has a market cap of $25.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a fifty day moving average of $122.25 and a 200 day moving average of $122.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.79 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.69%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. UMB Bank n.a. raised its holdings in NetApp by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management increased its holdings in NetApp by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NetApp

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.