Federated Hermes Inc. Sells 202,404 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Federated Hermes Inc. decreased its stake in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 18.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 893,832 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after selling 202,404 shares during the period. Federated Hermes Inc. owned 0.45% of NetApp worth $95,238,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of NTAP. Patton Fund Management Inc. bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $265,000. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.8% in the second quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,810,772 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $192,938,000 after purchasing an additional 66,045 shares during the last quarter. Aurora Investment Counsel acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $2,337,000. SG Americas Securities LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 1,081.8% during the second quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 292,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,193,000 after purchasing an additional 267,985 shares during the period. Finally, Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 17.7% during the 1st quarter. Edmond DE Rothschild Holding S.A. now owns 814,697 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $71,563,000 after purchasing an additional 122,784 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

NTAP has been the topic of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 26th. Argus reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $130.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $125.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $124.07.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $117.27 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.30, a current ratio of 1.34 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.52. NetApp, Inc. has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $131.30. The firm has a market cap of $23.23 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.39, a P/E/G ratio of 2.59 and a beta of 1.42. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $114.78 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $110.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The data storage provider reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.17. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 121.28%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 2.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.87 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.750-8.050 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 2.010-2.110 EPS. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 36.17%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.91, for a total transaction of $1,075,462.50. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer directly owned 274,938 shares in the company, valued at $33,792,629.58. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the firm’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. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 12,183 shares of company stock worth $1,483,361. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

NetApp 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.