NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Citigroup Analyst Says

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target boosted by Citigroup from $130.00 to $135.00 in a research report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on NTAP. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a PE ratio of 23.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.04 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a twelve month low of $77.56 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % 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 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 11.8% in the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management grew its position in shares of NetApp by 1.4% in the 2nd quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after purchasing an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Quarry LP grew its position in shares of NetApp by 11.7% in the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after purchasing an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its position in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. 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.