Insider Selling: NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) President Sells 22,000 Shares of Stock

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock traded down $0.41 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $116.08. 1,378,127 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,843,281. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $123.75. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $83.62 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The stock has a market cap of $23.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the subject of a number of recent research reports. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an "underperform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $139.20.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.