Mizuho Markets Cayman LP Increases Position in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Mizuho Markets Cayman LP lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 12.9% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 40,860 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after buying an additional 4,680 shares during the quarter. Mizuho Markets Cayman LP’s holdings in NetApp were worth $4,184,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 38.3% during the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $67,000 after acquiring an additional 210 shares during the period. Sivia Capital Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 9.9% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,986,000 after purchasing an additional 4,232 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.3% during the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,589,000 after purchasing an additional 1,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.7% during the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,148,000 after purchasing an additional 2,277 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.92, for a total transaction of $170,920.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,297 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,349,283.24. This represents a 3.10% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,800. The trade was a 20.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,181,642 in the last 90 days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Citigroup increased their price target on NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research report on Monday, June 8th. Argus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Five analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $169.33.

NetApp Stock Up 0.5%

NTAP opened at $166.54 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $93.69 and a 12 month high of $192.83. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.68 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.03 and a beta of 1.46. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $156.10 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.82.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 32.70%.

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.