Analysts Set NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) PT at $139.20

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the sixteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $139.20.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup upped their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.10 on Thursday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.21 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.31. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.85 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data 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. The company 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. On average, analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total transaction of $1,045,755.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at $33,375,824.46. The trade was a 3.04 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in NetApp by 2.0% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. raised its position in NetApp by 9.2% during the fourth quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,346,212 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $156,268,000 after acquiring an additional 113,360 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after acquiring an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Finally, Barclays PLC boosted its position in NetApp by 31.4% in the 3rd quarter. Barclays PLC now owns 784,339 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $96,873,000 after purchasing an additional 187,638 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.