JPMorgan Chase & Co. Upgrades NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) to Overweight

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was upgraded by analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a research report issued on Monday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The brokerage presently has a $160.00 target price on the data storage provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s target price indicates a potential upside of 30.62% from the stock’s current price.

Several other brokerages have also recently issued reports on NTAP. UBS Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. TD Cowen increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Down 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $122.49 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $24.90 billion, a PE ratio of 22.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $122.86 and a 200 day simple moving average of $124.12. 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 12-month low of $83.62 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during 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 firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at approximately $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC grew its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $44,000. 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.