NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.52

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, November 21st,RTT News reports. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of 0.52 per share by the data storage provider on Wednesday, January 22nd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%.

NetApp has raised its dividend by an average of 1.4% per year over the last three years. NetApp has a dividend payout ratio of 27.4% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect NetApp to earn $6.18 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 33.7%.

NetApp Stock Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.75 on Friday. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a PE ratio of 24.76, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.46 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently commented on the company. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen upped their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $130.00.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

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.