Morgan Stanley Issues Positive Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective lifted by Morgan Stanley from $132.00 to $146.00 in a report released on Tuesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on NTAP. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup raised their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Down 1.5 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $116.58 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $23.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.43, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $122.52 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $124.03. NetApp has a 12-month low of $83.62 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 31,549 shares of company stock valued at $3,864,316 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth about $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.