First Trust Advisors LP Boosts Stake in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

First Trust Advisors LP boosted its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 127.0% during the first quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The fund owned 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 2,046,912 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $374,549,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Park Square Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 68.7% during the fourth quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares in the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc purchased a new stake in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. DV Equities LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $30,000. Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, JFS Wealth Advisors LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 176.3% in the 4th quarter. JFS Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 315 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,000 after buying an additional 201 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 2.9%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $165.76 on Wednesday. NetApp, Inc. has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $192.83. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $155.14 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $121.40. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.06, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.46.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total transaction of $38,495.25. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $186,488.10. This trade represents a 17.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing 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 dated 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 completion of the transaction, the president owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. This represents a 51.38% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 52,964 shares of company stock valued at $8,181,642 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Bank of America increased 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. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Susquehanna increased their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Argus raised their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, June 1st. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $169.33.

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.