Analysts Set NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) PT at $129.06

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the sixteen analysts that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $129.06.

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on NTAP. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 10,637 shares of company stock valued at $1,376,474. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Czech National Bank increased its position in shares of NetApp by 6.5% during the 3rd quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 41,875 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,172,000 after purchasing an additional 2,548 shares during the period. Healthcare of Ontario Pension Plan Trust Fund bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $3,877,000. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 166.9% in the 2nd quarter. Newbridge Financial Services Group Inc. now owns 2,143 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $276,000 after acquiring an additional 1,340 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth about $566,000. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its stake in NetApp by 28.2% during the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 36,190 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,661,000 after buying an additional 7,960 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Down 0.3 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.71 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $122.81 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $117.78. The stock has a market cap of $25.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 26.45, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.61 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

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.