NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Neutral Rating from Wedbush

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by investment analysts at Wedbush in a research note issued to investors on Friday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $120.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price objective would suggest a potential downside of 1.91% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also issued reports on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Morgan Stanley lifted their price target on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Down 3.4 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 1 year low of $77.56 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $121.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.59. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares in the last quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 17.5% during the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in NetApp by 12.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.