NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Short Interest Down 21.4% in March

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) saw a significant decrease in short interest during the month of March. As of March 15th, there was short interest totalling 6,220,000 shares, a decrease of 21.4% from the February 28th total of 7,910,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 1,950,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 3.2 days. Approximately 3.0% of the shares of the stock are sold short.

NetApp Stock Up 1.1 %

NTAP traded up $1.00 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $90.49. The company had a trading volume of 1,591,116 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,857,725. The company has a market cap of $18.41 billion, a P/E ratio of 16.63, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 12 month low of $86.40 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $108.45 and its 200 day moving average price is $116.86.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.30%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. This represents a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $33,375,824.46. This trade represents a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 50,627 shares of company stock worth $5,498,573. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. FMR LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 2.1% during the third quarter. FMR LLC now owns 267,785 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $33,074,000 after buying an additional 5,636 shares during the period. Townsquare Capital LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 66.5% during the 3rd quarter. Townsquare Capital LLC now owns 5,989 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $740,000 after acquiring an additional 2,392 shares during the last quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $205,000. Public Sector Pension Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 12.7% in the third quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 8,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,099,000 after purchasing an additional 1,000 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 124.2% in the third quarter. Rockefeller Capital Management L.P. now owns 42,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,194,000 after purchasing an additional 23,305 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $110.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, March 3rd. StockNews.com lowered shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.07.

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.