NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Sets New 12-Month High – Here’s What Happened

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) hit a new 52-week high during trading on Friday . The company traded as high as $129.60 and last traded at $133.9590, with a volume of 235873 shares changing hands. The stock had previously closed at $123.94.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $115.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, April 19th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of NetApp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “hold (c+)” rating in a research note on Friday, March 13th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $118.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup cut shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to a “mixed” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, four have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $122.27.

NetApp Stock Up 11.1%

The company’s fifty day moving average is $106.88 and its 200-day moving average is $106.57. The company has a market capitalization of $27.18 billion, a PE ratio of 23.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.28. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.15, a quick ratio of 1.36 and a current ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 26th. The data storage provider reported $2.12 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.07 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.70 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.07% and a return on equity of 118.11%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.91 EPS. NetApp has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 2.210-2.310 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 7.920-8.020 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 6.48 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 3rd were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.5%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 2nd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.78%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total value of $33,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $130,800. This represents a 20.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.73, for a total value of $117,730.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 18,382 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,164,112.86. The trade was a 5.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 3,275 shares of company stock valued at $347,650 over the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Royal Fund Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 60.8% during the 1st quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC now owns 8,198 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $839,000 after acquiring an additional 3,100 shares during the last quarter. Bank of America Corp DE boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 7.5% during the 1st quarter. Bank of America Corp DE now owns 1,956,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $200,310,000 after acquiring an additional 136,769 shares during the last quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 203.1% during the 1st quarter. Edgestream Partners L.P. now owns 44,831 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,590,000 after acquiring an additional 30,038 shares during the last quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 124.3% during the 1st quarter. Kentucky Retirement Systems now owns 28,138 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,881,000 after acquiring an additional 15,594 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 34.6% during the 1st quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas now owns 73,038 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,478,000 after acquiring an additional 18,755 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Company Profile

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.