Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price reduced by stock analysts at Barclays from $132.00 to $115.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would suggest a potential upside of 15.00% from the company’s previous close.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and boosted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.07.

NetApp Stock Down 15.4 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $18.22 during trading on Friday, hitting $100.00. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 10,000,347 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,739,159. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $120.22 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $122.02. The company has a market capitalization of $20.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $88.49 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,755,705.60. This represents a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. increased its holdings 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 buying an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. increased its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.