NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $147.00 at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price boosted by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $146.00 to $147.00 in a research report released on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also weighed in on NTAP. Argus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a positive rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $127.67.

NetApp Trading Down 9.6 %

NTAP opened at $119.20 on Thursday. NetApp has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $127.67 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $113.33. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.53 billion, a PE ratio of 25.69, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.24 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.84 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.47 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, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to reacquire up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.24, for a total transaction of $954,300.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 193,369 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $24,604,271.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 28.2% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 36,190 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $4,661,000 after acquiring an additional 7,960 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 16.1% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 21,417 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,759,000 after buying an additional 2,974 shares during the period. Hershey Financial Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $45,000. Core Alternative Capital increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in the second quarter. Core Alternative Capital now owns 42,345 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,454,000 after buying an additional 224 shares during the period. Finally, Quarry LP increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.