CSM Advisors LLC Buys New Stake in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

CSM Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 63,280 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $6,740,000.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,375,363,000 after buying an additional 597,956 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 1.0% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,096,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $623,383,000 after acquiring an additional 72,223 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 18.8% during the first quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,546,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $311,529,000 after acquiring an additional 560,218 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 12.3% during the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $308,107,000 after acquiring an additional 384,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Amundi raised its position in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the 1st quarter. Amundi now owns 2,179,710 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $183,209,000 after purchasing an additional 230,793 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 16th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, August 29th. William Blair reaffirmed a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Thursday, October 16th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 25th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have issued a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $122.40.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $112.97 on Monday. The business’s 50-day moving average is $119.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $108.66. The company has a market capitalization of $22.55 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.96, a P/E/G ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $71.84 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.31.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.54 by ($0.35). The company had revenue of $1.56 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.54 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.24% and a net margin of 17.77%.The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.56 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. Research analysts predict that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 36.75%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total value of $94,936.73. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.67, for a total transaction of $123,670.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 23,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,922,074.76. The trade was a 4.06% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Insiders sold a total of 20,029 shares of company stock worth $2,338,294 in the last three months. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

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.