NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $132.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price increased by Morgan Stanley from $127.00 to $132.00 in a report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on NTAP. Evercore ISI increased their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Up 3.1 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp has a 1-year low of $77.56 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a 50-day moving average of $122.04 and a 200 day moving average of $122.81. The firm has a market cap 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.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results 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. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, 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 value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp grew its position in NetApp by 2.0% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after purchasing an additional 199,384 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after acquiring an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 17.5% during the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after acquiring an additional 416,233 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc raised its position in NetApp by 3.5% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in NetApp by 12.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $223,806,000 after acquiring an additional 196,952 shares during the period. 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.