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

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target lifted by Northland Securities from $108.00 to $120.00 in a research note published on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a market perform rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the topic of a number of other research reports. Barclays boosted their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group raised their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company 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. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $122.04 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.81.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. 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 payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 343.1% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 227,933 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,152,000 after purchasing an additional 176,495 shares during the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $160,000. World Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 6.1% during the 3rd quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,998 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $988,000 after buying an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its position in NetApp by 73.1% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 7,608 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $931,000 after buying an additional 3,213 shares during the period. Finally, Unigestion Holding SA lifted its stake in NetApp by 926.1% in the third quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after buying an additional 256,028 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.