NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian Sells 8,500 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

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

• On Monday, November 18th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00.
• On Monday, October 21st, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $116.58 on Friday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $122.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.03. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $83.62 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $23.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.43, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts recently issued reports on the company. Citigroup increased their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.