NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Rating Increased to Neutral at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from an underperform rating to a neutral rating in a report published on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $128.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $121.00.

NTAP has been the topic of a number of other reports. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $138.00.

NetApp Stock Up 3.3 %

NTAP stock opened at $124.53 on Wednesday. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $25.32 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $120.01 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.82. 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 released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at $1,395,024.75. This represents a 3.77 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 52,403 shares of company stock valued at $6,248,501. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 5,858.0% during the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,942,000 after buying an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 276.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.