NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Analysts

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have received a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price objective among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $139.20.

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America raised their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.49 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.90 billion, a PE ratio of 22.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $122.86 and a 200-day moving average of $124.12. NetApp has a one year low of $83.62 and a one year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $278,000. Wedmont Private Capital increased its position in NetApp by 6.9% during the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 3,482 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $453,000 after acquiring an additional 224 shares during the period. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC increased its position in NetApp by 3.4% during the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 56,708 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,304,000 after acquiring an additional 1,858 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 268.8% during the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,184 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $154,000 after purchasing an additional 863 shares during the last quarter. Finally, PGGM Investments boosted its holdings in NetApp by 0.8% in the 2nd quarter. PGGM Investments now owns 60,129 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,745,000 after purchasing an additional 468 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.