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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the sixteen brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $129.06.

Several research firms have weighed in on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. SteelPeak Wealth LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 31.0% in the third quarter. SteelPeak Wealth LLC now owns 6,655 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $822,000 after buying an additional 1,576 shares during the last quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. raised its position in NetApp by 6.8% in the 3rd quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 3,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $407,000 after purchasing an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its stake in NetApp by 30.4% during the 3rd quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 8,443 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,043,000 after purchasing an additional 1,966 shares during the period. Great Diamond Partners LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $1,727,000. Finally, Smith Group Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the third quarter valued at $907,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $119.41 on Tuesday. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $123.15 and a 200 day moving average price of $119.95. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.32, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

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.