NetApp Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) saw some unusual options trading on Thursday. Investors purchased 12,474 call options on the company. This represents an increase of approximately 251% compared to the average volume of 3,554 call options.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $32,000. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $45,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

NetApp Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $116.94 on Friday. NetApp has a 1 year low of $83.62 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $121.15 and a 200-day moving average price of $123.64. The company has a market cap of $23.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.50, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

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.