NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $145.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target upped by Stifel Nicolaus from $140.00 to $145.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on NTAP. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Up 3.1 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.19, a P/E/G ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52-week low of $77.56 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $122.04 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.81.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 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.