Dimensional Fund Advisors LP Boosts Stock Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 1.5% in the 1st quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 2,129,773 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 30,559 shares during the quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $218,065,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Parallel Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 2.1% during the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $536,000 after buying an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 68.7% in the 4th quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.0% in the 1st quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,000 after acquiring an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 5.8% during the 4th quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,953 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $209,000 after acquiring an additional 107 shares during the period. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 0.9% during the 4th quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 12,559 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,345,000 after acquiring an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.92, for a total value of $170,920.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 31,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,349,283.24. The trade was a 3.10% 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. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the transaction, the president owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at $7,246,504.92. This trade represents a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,181,642. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. The Goldman Sachs Group reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Citigroup increased their price target 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. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have assigned a Hold rating and one has given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.33.

NetApp Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of NTAP opened at $164.64 on Friday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $156.99 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.23. NetApp, Inc. has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $192.83. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The firm has a market cap of $32.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.04 and a beta of 1.46.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.70%.

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.