NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Analysts

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $137.33.

A number of analysts have recently commented on the stock. TD Cowen boosted 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, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 target price for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Down 0.1 %

NTAP opened at $124.47 on Monday. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.31 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.88, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day moving average of $120.12 and a two-hundred day moving average of $122.00. 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 fifty-two week low of $85.28 and a fifty-two week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its 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. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

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.