E Fund Management Co. Ltd. Takes Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

E Fund Management Co. Ltd. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund acquired 5,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $830,000.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Park Square Financial Group LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 68.7% during the 4th quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after buying an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Gen Wealth Partners Inc bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $30,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $30,000. Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth $31,000. Finally, Torren Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $34,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on NTAP shares. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $200.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $137.00 to $173.00 in a research report on Monday, August 10th. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $177.25.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $194.48 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $38.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 30.58, a PEG ratio of 3.67 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a quick ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 1.44 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $171.67 and its 200-day simple moving average is $133.81. NetApp, Inc. has a 52 week low of $93.69 and a 52 week high of $209.06.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. 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 7.3 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Investors of record on Friday, July 10th were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.1%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 32.70%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total transaction of $38,495.25. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $186,488.10. This represents a 17.11% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total value of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 30,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,872,164.54. This represents a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders have sold 55,297 shares of company stock valued at $8,758,016 over the last ninety days. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

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.