UBS Group Raises NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target to $134.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price hoisted by UBS Group from $121.00 to $134.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reissued a neutral rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday. Evercore ISI lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research note on Friday, May 31st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $127.67.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $119.20 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15. The firm has a market cap of $24.53 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 25.69, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $127.67 and a 200-day moving average price of $113.33. NetApp has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.84 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. GAMMA Investing LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $58,000. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 28.7% in the fourth quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 3,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its holdings in NetApp by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 24,527 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,162,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Mather Group LLC. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 42.3% in the fourth quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 4,775 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $421,000 after purchasing an additional 1,419 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 804.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,236 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,195,000 after acquiring an additional 32,230 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently 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.