Plan Group Financial LLC Makes New Investment in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Plan Group Financial LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund purchased 2,493 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $386,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 1.1% in the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,192,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,091,499,000 after acquiring an additional 115,451 shares during the last quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP increased its position in NetApp by 17.1% during the third quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,915,553 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $582,296,000 after purchasing an additional 718,409 shares during the last quarter. Norges Bank purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth approximately $458,060,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 17.4% during the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 4,127,533 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $442,018,000 after purchasing an additional 611,003 shares during the period. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 127.0% in the 1st quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $374,549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities increased their target price on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America boosted their price target on NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Susquehanna upped their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $172.33.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the business’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 transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $130,800. The trade was a 20.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total value of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,872,164.54. The trade was a 3.20% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,257,732 over the last three months. 0.36% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $207.08 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $209.06. The company has a 50 day moving average of $169.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $131.42. The company has a market cap of $40.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 32.56, a P/E/G ratio of 3.68 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.NetApp’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.3 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.70%.

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.