NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives $129.06 Average Target Price from Analysts

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $129.06.

Several equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management increased its holdings in NetApp by 1.4% in the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.3% during the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its stake in NetApp by 0.5% during the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after acquiring an additional 95 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $119.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a one year low of $77.08 and a one year high of $135.01. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.26 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.23. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.44 billion, a PE ratio of 23.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.01 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.62%.

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.