Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Acquires 6,255 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 5.6% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 118,939 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 6,255 shares during the quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC owned approximately 0.06% of NetApp worth $12,178,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Sylvest Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 6.7% during the 1st quarter. Sylvest Advisors LLC now owns 9,287 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $951,000 after acquiring an additional 587 shares during the last quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 0.6% during the 1st quarter. GHP Investment Advisors Inc. now owns 111,449 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $11,411,000 after purchasing an additional 713 shares during the last quarter. MRWM Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 1.8% during the 1st quarter. MRWM Advisors LLC now owns 6,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $696,000 after purchasing an additional 122 shares during the last quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 5.2% during the first quarter. Foster & Motley Inc. now owns 35,159 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,600,000 after purchasing an additional 1,744 shares during the period. Finally, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at $1,034,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently weighed in on NTAP shares. UBS Group reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $160.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Saturday, June 27th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.33.

NetApp Stock Up 1.0%

NTAP opened at $156.38 on Thursday. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $93.69 and a fifty-two week high of $192.83. 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 company has a market capitalization of $30.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.59, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.46. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $140.58 and a 200-day moving average of $116.17.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The business had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. The company’s 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, equities analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,800. This trade represents a 20.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total transaction of $7,658,016.48. Following the completion of the sale, the president owned 46,806 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. The trade was a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold a total of 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,106,972 in the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

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.