NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) President Cesar Cernuda Sells 22,000 Shares

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.08. 1,355,395 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,839,953. The company has a market capitalization of $23.60 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.36 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.82. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $83.62 and a 12 month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business 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%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. Citigroup increased their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. International Assets Investment Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $85,000. Rothschild Investment LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $159,000. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.8% during the second quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC now owns 23,584 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,038,000 after acquiring an additional 639 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 6.4% in the 2nd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 41,099 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,294,000 after acquiring an additional 2,486 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Graypoint LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 5.3% during the 2nd quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 2,625 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $338,000 after purchasing an additional 133 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company 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.