Westerkirk Capital Inc. Invests $852,000 in NetApp, Inc. $NTAP

Westerkirk Capital Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) in the 2nd quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 8,000 shares of the data storage provider’s stock, valued at approximately $852,000.

A number of other hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 375.0% in the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after acquiring an additional 225 shares during the last quarter. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $25,000. Harbour Investments Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 287.9% in the 2nd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 256 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Finally, CVA Family Office LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 300.0% during the second quarter. CVA Family Office LLC now owns 292 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $31,000 after buying an additional 219 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 274,938 shares in the company, valued at $33,792,629.58. This trade represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.00, for a total value of $119,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,628 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,692,732. This represents a 4.23% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 12,183 shares of company stock worth $1,483,361 over the last ninety days. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

NetApp Trading Up 3.2%

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $115.83 on Wednesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.31, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. NetApp, Inc. has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $131.30. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $115.10 and its 200-day simple moving average is $110.59. The company has a market capitalization of $22.94 billion, a PE ratio of 20.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.48 and a beta of 1.46.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The data storage provider reported $2.05 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.88 by $0.17. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.24% and a net margin of 17.77%.The firm had revenue of $1.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.69 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.87 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue 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. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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

Analysts Set New Price Targets

NTAP has been the topic of several research reports. Northland Securities set a $137.00 price target on NetApp and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 26th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 price target on NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $110.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, October 10th. Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “hold (c+)” rating on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Finally, Northland Capmk raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $124.07.

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.