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 report released on Tuesday morning.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. 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. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

NTAP opened at $122.44 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $121.31 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.37. The stock has a market cap of $24.89 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.51, a P/E/G ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.23.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 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 transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after purchasing an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its position in NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth about $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 232.2% during the 3rd quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $831,000 after buying an additional 4,705 shares during the last quarter. 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.