Royal Fund Management LLC Has $839,000 Stake in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Royal Fund Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) by 60.8% in the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 8,198 shares of the data storage provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,100 shares during the quarter. Royal Fund Management LLC’s holdings in NetApp were worth $839,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 38.3% in the 1st quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after buying an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 9.9% in the second quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,986,000 after acquiring an additional 4,232 shares during the period. Bank of Nova Scotia lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 7.3% in the second quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,589,000 after acquiring an additional 1,662 shares during the period. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 12.7% in the second quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 2,277 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the subject of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Argus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, June 1st. Finally, UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have given a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.33.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $130,800. This represents a 20.15% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total transaction of $7,658,016.48. Following the transaction, the president directly owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at $7,246,504.92. This trade represents a 51.38% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,181,642. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $173.98 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 27.36, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.16 and a beta of 1.46. NetApp, Inc. has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $192.83. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $162.10 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $124.57. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The business’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.93 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. On average, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th were paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 32.70%.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.