NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Gap Down – Here’s What Happened

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $119.68, but opened at $116.99. NetApp shares last traded at $116.57, with a volume of 114,185 shares changing hands.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore ISI increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

The company’s 50 day moving average price is $121.08 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.74. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market cap of $24.26 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company’s revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Acadian Asset Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 11.9% during the 1st quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its holdings in NetApp by 12.8% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.