NetApp Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 12,474 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 251% compared to the typical daily volume of 3,554 call options.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company grew its holdings in NetApp by 4.7% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 202.1% during the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,886,000 after buying an additional 178,135 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. TD Cowen increased their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Down 0.1 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $115.92 on Friday. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $121.15 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $123.64. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm has a market cap of $23.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.83 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, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

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.