NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Downgraded to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report released on Monday.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on NTAP. Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen raised their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.09 on Monday. 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 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $122.76. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a PE ratio of 22.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results 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. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 43,110 shares of company stock worth $5,077,596 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. State Street Corp increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.0% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after buying an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares during the period. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 38.5% during the third quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,270,000 after buying an additional 342,415 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.