NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Upgraded to “Overweight” at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a neutral rating to an overweight rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $160.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the topic of several other research reports. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group raised their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $138.27.

NetApp Price Performance

NetApp stock opened at $126.10 on Monday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.94 and its 200 day simple moving average is $124.11. NetApp has a 12 month low of $83.62 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $25.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.18, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

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. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 previous year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. 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 Trading of NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management boosted its position in NetApp by 1.4% during the 2nd 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 during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in 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 acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP increased its position in shares of NetApp by 11.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co increased its position in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in 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 acquiring an additional 95 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.