abrdn plc Acquires 62,295 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)

abrdn plc raised its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 116.3% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 115,880 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 62,295 shares during the quarter. abrdn plc owned 0.06% of NetApp worth $10,216,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after purchasing an additional 293 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. First Pacific Financial bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $29,000. UMB Bank n.a. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 82.9% during the 4th quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 331 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 150 shares during the period. Finally, Planned Solutions Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Wedbush increased their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Raymond James reissued a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Evercore ISI increased their price objective on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group increased their price objective on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $100.60.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 15,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.67, for a total transaction of $1,540,050.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 144,909 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,877,807.03. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 in the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $100.94 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $20.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.94, a P/E/G ratio of 2.21 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $60.92 and a 1-year high of $112.48. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $99.90 and its 200 day moving average is $89.10.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $1.02 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Investors of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.98%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 45.45%.

NetApp Profile

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.