NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Short Interest Update

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) saw a significant decline in short interest in the month of February. As of February 28th, there was short interest totalling 7,910,000 shares, a decline of 21.8% from the February 13th total of 10,120,000 shares. Approximately 3.9% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average trading volume of 1,830,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days.

NetApp Stock Up 0.2 %

Shares of NetApp stock traded up $0.23 during trading on Friday, reaching $92.33. The company's stock had a trading volume of 564,701 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,726,916. The company has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.97, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $112.92 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $118.27. NetApp has a 1-year low of $89.88 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $129.07.

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Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company's 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 completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 451 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock valued at $6,252,759 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. M&T Bank Corp lifted its holdings in NetApp by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $1,485,000 after acquiring an additional 581 shares during the last quarter. Versor Investments LP acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $395,000. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management lifted its holdings in NetApp by 120.7% in the fourth quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,998,000 after acquiring an additional 37,684 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently 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.