NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Wednesday morning.

Several other research firms have also issued reports on NTAP. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. 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 research report on Monday, December 16th. Susquehanna lowered NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $137.33.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $124.47 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 12 month low of $85.28 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $120.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.86.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 826.9% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $32,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 929.6% during the 4th quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.