NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives $139.20 Consensus Target Price from Analysts

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $139.20.

Several research analysts have commented on NTAP shares. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. The trade was a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. This represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 51,159 shares of company stock valued at $6,096,859. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its stake in NetApp by 8.9% in the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after buying an additional 24,651 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.9% in the 3rd quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 42,302 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $5,225,000 after acquiring an additional 7,318 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its position in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after acquiring an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Hilton Capital Management LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,059,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI grew its holdings in NetApp by 202.1% during the third quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 266,262 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $32,886,000 after purchasing an additional 178,135 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Up 0.8 %

NTAP stock opened at $118.09 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $24.01 billion, a PE ratio of 21.71, a PEG ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a 1 year low of $83.80 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $121.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $123.29. 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 (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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.83 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. Shareholders 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 yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

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.