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

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

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

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

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $118.34 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.75, a PEG 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. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $83.62 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.68 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.08.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates 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 return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday. Finally, TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Blue Trust Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 57.9% during the second quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 1,252 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $161,000 after purchasing an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its position in shares of NetApp by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 349,663 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $45,037,000 after buying an additional 12,856 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 125.3% in the 2nd quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. now owns 84,077 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $10,829,000 after buying an additional 46,760 shares during the period. Pallas Capital Advisors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at $262,000. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its position in NetApp by 28.8% during the second quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 10,386 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,338,000 after acquiring an additional 2,324 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.