NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have been given a consensus rating of “Hold” by the seventeen brokerages that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $139.20.

A number of research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th.

Insider Transactions 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 accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was 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 ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 51,864 shares of company stock worth $6,185,830 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Central Pacific Bank Trust Division purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $110,000. Everence Capital Management Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 33.8% during the fourth quarter. Everence Capital Management Inc. now owns 7,760 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $901,000 after purchasing an additional 1,960 shares in the last quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 17.3% during the 4th quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 3,291 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $382,000 after purchasing an additional 486 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc lifted its holdings in NetApp by 25.2% in the 4th quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 765 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $89,000 after purchasing an additional 154 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 0.5% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 282,467 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $34,888,000 after purchasing an additional 1,271 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Trading Up 0.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $116.94 on Friday. NetApp has a 1 year low of $83.62 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $121.10 and a 200 day moving average of $123.58. The stock has a market cap of $23.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its 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 firm 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 business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.78%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.