NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $139.20.

A number of research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $116.94 on Friday. NetApp has a 52-week low of $83.62 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.10 and its 200 day simple moving average is $123.58. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $23.77 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company’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 earnings per share. Research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company 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. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.78%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value 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. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of 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. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 7,318 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its holdings 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 buying an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI raised its position in shares of NetApp by 202.1% in the 3rd quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,886,000 after acquiring an additional 178,135 shares in the last quarter. 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.