Brokerages Set NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Target Price at $137.40

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been assigned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12-month target price among analysts that have covered the stock in the last year is $137.40.

NTAP has been the topic of several analyst reports. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group raised their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted 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.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its stake in NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after buying an additional 83 shares in the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd 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 during the last quarter. Quarry LP raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.7% in the 2nd 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 lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 1.3 %

NTAP stock opened at $121.95 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $83.62 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.70, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $122.93 and its 200 day moving average price is $123.91.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.71%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

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.