Michael J. Berry Sells 7,500 Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total value of $954,300.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $128.80 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $26.51 billion, a PE ratio of 27.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.20 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $115.36 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $101.29. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $130.87.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.61%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 43.10%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Confluence Wealth Services Inc. now owns 4,684 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $492,000 after acquiring an additional 106 shares in the last quarter. Graypoint LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 4.8% during the first quarter. Graypoint LLC now owns 2,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 114 shares in the last quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.3% in the fourth quarter. Mission Wealth Management LP now owns 3,639 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $321,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 58.7% during the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Lindbrook Capital LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 10.1% during the 4th quarter. Lindbrook Capital LLC now owns 1,336 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $118,000 after buying an additional 123 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on NTAP. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their target price for the company from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. TD Cowen boosted their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. UBS Group increased their price objective on NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Argus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $117.81.

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.