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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has received an average recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten 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 issued a report on the stock in the last year is $129.06.

A number of equities analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were 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. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 46.1% during the first 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 period. Headlands Technologies LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $473,000. Russell Investments Group Ltd. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 60.5% during the first quarter. Russell Investments Group Ltd. now owns 527,064 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $55,355,000 after buying an additional 198,627 shares during the last quarter. National Bank of Canada FI raised its stake in NetApp by 221.9% during the 1st quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 301,699 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,731,000 after purchasing an additional 207,968 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Sei Investments Co. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 63.9% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 343,218 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,025,000 after buying an additional 133,813 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $119.84 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $24.54 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.41, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a 1 year low of $70.82 and a 1 year high of $135.01. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $123.60 and its two-hundred day moving average is $119.85. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.84 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared 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 dividend yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

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.