NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $145.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target hoisted by Stifel Nicolaus from $140.00 to $145.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the subject of several other reports. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Bank of America lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. One 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.69. The stock has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 12 month low of $77.56 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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 the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. On average, research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in NetApp by 4.7% in the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 132.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after buying an additional 16,066 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

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.