Board of the Pension Protection Fund Trims Stake in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Board of the Pension Protection Fund reduced its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 90.0% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 700 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 6,300 shares during the quarter. Board of the Pension Protection Fund’s holdings in NetApp were worth $75,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 4.9% in the 3rd quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 432,772 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $51,266,000 after purchasing an additional 20,089 shares in the last quarter. Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 216.1% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 927,525 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $109,875,000 after acquiring an additional 634,085 shares in the last quarter. National Pension Service increased its holdings in NetApp by 26.0% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 159,274 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $18,868,000 after acquiring an additional 32,833 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,810,772 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $192,938,000 after acquiring an additional 66,045 shares during the last quarter. Finally, J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG lifted its stake in NetApp by 496.7% in the 3rd quarter. J. Safra Sarasin Holding AG now owns 18,168 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,152,000 after purchasing an additional 15,123 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on NTAP. The Goldman Sachs Group initiated coverage on NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, January 13th. They set a “buy” rating and a $128.00 price target for the company. Northland Securities set a $137.00 price objective on NetApp and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Bank of America increased their target price on NetApp from $125.00 to $129.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $115.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Weiss Ratings cut shares of 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, five have given a Buy rating and nine have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $122.42.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $103.09 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.34 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.24, a PEG ratio of 3.12 and a beta of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $126.66. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $100.92 and a 200-day simple moving average of $110.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a current ratio of 1.39 and a quick ratio of 1.36.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The data storage provider reported $2.12 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.07 by $0.05. The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.70 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.07% and a return on equity of 118.11%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous 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. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.0%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 2nd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.78%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $100.67, for a total transaction of $100,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 20,382 shares in the company, valued at $2,051,855.94. This trade represents a 4.68% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders have sold 3,000 shares of company stock worth $309,610 over the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Profile

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.