TD Cowen Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective upped by equities research analysts at TD Cowen from $145.00 to $160.00 in a report issued on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. TD Cowen’s target price suggests a potential upside of 30.78% from the company’s previous close.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. NetApp has a twelve month low of $77.56 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The business’s fifty day moving average is $121.87 and its 200-day moving average is $122.59.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share 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 return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, 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 value of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.