NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $132.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective hoisted by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $127.00 to $132.00 in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price points to a potential upside of 7.90% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on NTAP. Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. 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 stock has a 50 day moving average price of $121.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $122.59. The stock has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a one year low of $77.56 and a one year 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, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

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