Short Interest in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Grows By 22.1%

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was the target of a significant increase in short interest in the month of September. As of September 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,470,000 shares, an increase of 22.1% from the August 31st total of 5,300,000 shares. Currently, 3.2% of the shares of the stock are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,720,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.8 days.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $1.33 on Monday, reaching $122.57. 72,714 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,886,750. The company has a market cap of $25.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.13, a PEG ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average of $123.18 and a 200-day moving average of $117.43. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $135.01.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 10,637 shares of company stock worth $1,376,474. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in NetApp by 57.5% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 5,643,780 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $497,556,000 after acquiring an additional 2,059,574 shares in the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 254.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,905,000 after acquiring an additional 1,654,942 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 48.3% in the 1st quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,375,366 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $249,307,000 after acquiring an additional 773,773 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 40.1% in the 4th quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,771,583 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,183,000 after buying an additional 507,317 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Company Profile

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.