Jefferies Financial Group Inc. Buys New Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm bought 138,845 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $14,869,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Wellington Management Group LLP boosted its holdings in NetApp by 17.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,915,553 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $582,296,000 after acquiring an additional 718,409 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in NetApp by 12.6% during the 3rd quarter. Boston Partners now owns 3,317,605 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $393,027,000 after acquiring an additional 370,405 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its holdings in NetApp by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 2,903,077 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $343,899,000 after acquiring an additional 29,871 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in NetApp by 0.6% during the 3rd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 2,091,817 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $247,795,000 after acquiring an additional 13,195 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 71.6% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,849,218 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $219,058,000 after acquiring an additional 771,835 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $139.36 on Monday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a P/E/G ratio of 2.54 and a beta of 1.28. The business’s 50-day moving average is $107.72 and its two-hundred day moving average is $106.73. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $93.69 and a 1 year high of $141.75.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The data storage provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 118.11% and a net margin of 18.07%.NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.91 EPS. NetApp has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 2.210-2.310 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.920-8.020 EPS. Analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 6.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 3rd were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 2nd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.5%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 34.78%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,800. This trade represents a 20.15% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.73, for a total value of $117,730.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 18,382 shares in the company, valued at $2,164,112.86. This trade represents a 5.16% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 3,275 shares of company stock worth $347,650 in the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the company. Wall Street Zen cut NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Sunday, April 19th. Citigroup cut NetApp from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut NetApp from an “overweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $125.00 to $110.00 in a report on Thursday, April 16th. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $118.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, May 20th. Finally, Weiss Ratings lowered NetApp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research report on Friday, March 13th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have given a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.27.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.