NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $132.00 at Morgan Stanley

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $127.00 to $132.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. One 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. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $121.87 and a 200-day moving average of $122.69. The company has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. NetApp has a 1 year low of $77.56 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 119.68%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 46.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 45.6% in the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,164 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 1,618 shares during the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in NetApp by 39.4% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $41,357,000 after acquiring an additional 111,439 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co bought a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $627,000. 92.17% of the stock is 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.