NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Rating Increased to Buy at StockNews.com

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on NTAP. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Northland Securities upped their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $120.28 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.11, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.99 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $121.37 and its 200-day moving average is $122.38. NetApp has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $516,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Quarry LP boosted its stake in NetApp by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the 3rd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $431,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Ballentine Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.5% in the 3rd quarter. Ballentine Partners LLC now owns 2,756 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $340,000 after acquiring an additional 118 shares in the last quarter. 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.