NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Research Coverage Started at Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm issued a market perform rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 3rd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Down 0.7 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded down $0.86 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $117.21. The stock had a trading volume of 1,973,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,807,237. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $121.17 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $121.82. NetApp has a 52-week low of $76.41 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $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 accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $26,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its position in NetApp by 706.3% during the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the third quarter valued at $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $32,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.