Element Capital Management LLC Acquires New Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Element Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm acquired 11,084 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,187,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Handelsbanken Fonder AB grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 106.8% during the fourth quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 262,732 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,136,000 after buying an additional 135,715 shares during the last quarter. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $14,869,000. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $458,060,000. National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 13.6% during the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 180,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $19,374,000 after buying an additional 21,643 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Citigroup Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 216.1% during the third quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 927,525 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $109,875,000 after buying an additional 634,085 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, June 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $163.48, for a total transaction of $163,480.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 32,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,279,913.56. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The shares were 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 $186,488.10. This represents a 17.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders sold 3,500 shares of company stock valued at $448,955. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wedbush boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” 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 research note on Monday, June 8th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Northland Securities boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five investment 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. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $169.33.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $154.81 on Thursday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $129.32 and its 200-day moving average price is $113.33. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $192.83. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.33 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.34, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its 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 the consensus estimate 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $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. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

NetApp 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.