NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $140.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target upped by Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $140.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a one year low of $77.56 and a one year high of $135.45. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $121.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.69. The company has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a PE ratio of 22.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data 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. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued 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 yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % 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 Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 46.1% in the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares during the period. CreativeOne Wealth LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 45.6% during the first quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,164 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $543,000 after acquiring an additional 1,618 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 39.4% in the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $41,357,000 after acquiring an additional 111,439 shares during the period. SVB Wealth LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 5.2% during the 1st quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $304,000 after purchasing an additional 142 shares during the period. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co purchased a new stake in NetApp during the 1st quarter worth about $627,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.