NetApp, Inc. (NTAP) To Go Ex-Dividend on April 4th

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, February 27th, RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of 0.52 per share by the data storage provider on Wednesday, April 23rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th.

NetApp has raised its dividend payment by an average of 1.3% per year over the last three years. NetApp has a dividend payout ratio of 24.3% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect NetApp to earn $6.43 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 32.3%.

NetApp Trading Up 1.9 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $89.49 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $18.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52-week low of $86.40 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $108.45 and a 200 day moving average price of $116.86.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price target (down from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen reduced their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.07.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson acquired 2,800 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was bought at an average cost of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $577,668. This trade represents a 78.92 % increase in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold 50,627 shares of company stock valued at $5,498,573 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% 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.