NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Upgraded at Loop Capital

Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Loop Capital currently has $150.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock, up from their previous price target of $121.00.

A number of other equities research analysts also recently weighed in on NTAP. Susquehanna restated a positive rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Bank of America raised their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Down 1.5 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $118.95 on Tuesday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $127.08 and its 200 day moving average is $114.41. NetApp has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market capitalization of $24.48 billion, a PE ratio of 25.64, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 1.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.63 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.75%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last ninety days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 3,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $302,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.9% in the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 24,527 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,162,000 after purchasing an additional 910 shares in the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 804.5% in the 4th quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,236 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,195,000 after purchasing an additional 32,230 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 7.5% in the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 3,809 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $336,000 after purchasing an additional 668 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About NetApp

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.