Ariel Investments LLC Acquires 60,326 Shares of NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Ariel Investments LLC raised its holdings in NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 21.2% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 344,734 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after acquiring an additional 60,326 shares during the quarter. Ariel Investments LLC owned about 0.17% of NetApp worth $36,731,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Zions Bancorporation National Association UT acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Invesco Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $308,107,000 after buying an additional 384,362 shares during the period. Entropy Technologies LP lifted its holdings in NetApp by 148.9% during the first quarter. Entropy Technologies LP now owns 12,973 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,140,000 after acquiring an additional 7,760 shares in the last quarter. Virtu Financial LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the first quarter valued at about $1,153,000. Finally, Nuveen LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $46,096,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total transaction of $94,936.73. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.91, for a total value of $1,075,462.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 274,938 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $33,792,629.58. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 11,183 shares of company stock valued at $1,359,691 over the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have recently weighed in on NTAP. Northland Capmk upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $125.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 12th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, August 28th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $114.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Finally, Oppenheimer reiterated a “market perform” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $124.07.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $117.30 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.23 billion, a PE ratio of 20.40, a P/E/G ratio of 2.60 and a beta of 1.42. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $128.53. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $114.74 and a 200 day simple moving average of $111.17. The company has a current ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.30 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.52.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 25th. The data storage provider reported $2.05 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.88 by $0.17. NetApp had a net margin of 17.73% and a return on equity of 121.28%. The company had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.69 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.87 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.8% compared to the same quarter last year. 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, research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 21st. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 2nd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 2nd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 36.17%.

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.