Barclays Issues Pessimistic Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target cut by analysts at Barclays from $132.00 to $115.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 15.00% from the company’s current price.

A number of other analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Northland Securities raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.07.

NetApp Trading Down 15.4 %

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $18.22 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $100.00. 10,000,347 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,739,159. NetApp has a 1-year low of $88.49 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $120.22 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $20.33 billion, a PE ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 5,858.0% in the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,942,000 after buying an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.