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

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

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

• On Monday, November 18th, George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock. The shares were 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 Price Performance

NTAP opened at $116.58 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $124.03. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.70 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.43, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in NetApp by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.3% during the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Quarry LP increased its holdings in NetApp by 11.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.5% in the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group lifted their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities 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 data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

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.