NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Announces Dividend Increase – $0.52 Per Share

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, May 30th, RTT News reports. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a dividend of 0.52 per share by the data storage provider on Wednesday, July 24th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.60%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, July 5th. This is a positive change from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50.

NetApp has raised its dividend by an average of 1.4% annually over the last three years. NetApp has a dividend payout ratio of 28.2% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Research analysts expect NetApp to earn $5.96 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $2.08 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 34.9%.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $130.26 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.81 billion, a PE ratio of 28.07, a P/E/G ratio of 5.26 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $116.61 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $102.04. NetApp has a one year low of $70.82 and a one year high of $131.02.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm’s revenue was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underweight” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Argus upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

NetApp declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 42,205 shares of company stock worth $5,193,529. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

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.