NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) shares gapped down prior to trading on Friday after StockNews.com downgraded the stock from a buy rating to a hold rating. The stock had previously closed at $118.22, but opened at $99.33. NetApp shares last traded at $103.28, with a volume of 1,077,237 shares traded.

Several other brokerages have also recently commented on NTAP. Barclays decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Twelve investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $132.07.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp 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 owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction 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 NetApp 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after acquiring an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the third quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 9.2% in the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $156,268,000 after acquiring an additional 113,360 shares during the last quarter. Hilton Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the third quarter worth $4,059,000. Finally, Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 232.2% in the third quarter. Orion Portfolio Solutions LLC now owns 6,731 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $831,000 after acquiring an additional 4,705 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $119.85 and its 200-day moving average price is $121.86. The firm has a market cap of $20.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

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.