NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives $139.20 Consensus PT from Analysts

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are presently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $139.20.

A number of analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $116.28 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $121.02 and a 200-day moving average price of $123.19. The firm has a market cap of $23.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping 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%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,159 shares of company stock valued at $6,096,859 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% 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.