Bank of America Increases NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target to $121.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective increased by equities researchers at Bank of America from $115.00 to $121.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underperform” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective indicates a potential downside of 1.10% from the stock’s current price.

NTAP has been the topic of several other reports. Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $121.87 and its 200-day moving average is $122.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a one year low of $77.56 and a one year high of $135.45.

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

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC increased its position in NetApp by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its holdings 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 in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 132.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after purchasing an additional 16,066 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.