NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $132.00 Price Target at Barclays

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective hoisted by Barclays from $119.00 to $132.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the topic of a number of other reports. Bank of America raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $122.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.81. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced 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 analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. Research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted 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 in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of NetApp by 132.1% in the first 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 during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.