NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives $137.40 Consensus Target Price from Brokerages

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been given an average recommendation of “Hold” by the seventeen ratings firms that are covering the firm, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and five have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $137.40.

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group lifted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 59.6% during the second quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the period. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Finally, APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $48,074,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $121.95 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 52-week low of $83.62 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $122.90 and a 200-day simple moving average of $124.04. The company has a market capitalization of $24.79 billion, a PE ratio of 22.42, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period last year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.71%. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.