NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $145.00 at Stifel Nicolaus

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $140.00 to $145.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America lifted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Up 3.1 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $126.18 on Friday. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $122.04 and its 200-day moving average is $122.81. The firm has a market cap of $25.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating 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 business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after buying an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.