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 stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $115.92 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.15 and a 200-day simple moving average of $123.64. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $83.62 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $23.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.79%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $32,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $45,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Northland Securities increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price on the stock in a research report on Monday, December 16th. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.