StockNews.com Upgrades NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) to Buy

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Wednesday.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.50 billion, a PE ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a one year low of $83.80 and a one year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $120.02 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.81.

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. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were 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 directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.7% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after acquiring an additional 429,343 shares during the period. State Street Corp raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after acquiring an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after acquiring an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in NetApp by 20.4% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,544,000 after purchasing an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.