Palouse Capital Management Inc. Reduces Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Palouse Capital Management Inc. decreased its position in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 8.9% in the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 36,299 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 3,556 shares during the period. NetApp accounts for 3.5% of Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s investment portfolio, making the stock its 2nd biggest holding. Palouse Capital Management Inc.’s holdings in NetApp were worth $5,618,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds also recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Czech National Bank lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 4.1% during the 2nd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 56,168 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $8,693,000 after purchasing an additional 2,227 shares during the last quarter. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab boosted its stake in NetApp by 13.0% during the 2nd quarter. PensionDanmark Pensionsforsikringsaktieselskab now owns 48,316 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,477,000 after purchasing an additional 5,573 shares during the period. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. grew its holdings in NetApp by 586.7% in the 2nd quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 340,130 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $52,639,000 after buying an additional 290,602 shares during the last quarter. Dynamic Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $260,000. Finally, GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in NetApp by 16.5% in the 2nd quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 6,704 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,038,000 after buying an additional 949 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $170.92, for a total transaction of $170,920.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,349,283.24. This trade represents a 3.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total transaction of $38,495.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $186,488.10. This represents a 17.11% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,181,642 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Northland Securities upped their price target on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, July 29th. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.33.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $191.48 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $166.64 and its 200-day simple moving average is $127.35. NetApp, Inc. has a twelve month low of $93.69 and a twelve month high of $195.70. The firm has a market cap of $37.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 30.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.41 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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%.The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last 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. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.1%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio 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.