NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $160.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective increased by TD Cowen from $145.00 to $160.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group lifted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Stifel Nicolaus raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a PE ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $121.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.69.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 119.68%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth $32,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Robbins Farley acquired a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.