NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by StockNews.com

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was downgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Monday.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Northland Securities upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $139.20.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $2.11 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $122.09. 1,821,302 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,269,484. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $120.88 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.76. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The company has a market cap of $24.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.44, a PEG ratio of 2.76 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a 12 month low of $83.80 and a 12 month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.23 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.88 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total value of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 43,110 shares of company stock valued at $5,077,596 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sei Investments Co. increased its position in NetApp by 7.8% in the second quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 370,032 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $47,660,000 after purchasing an additional 26,814 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 12.6% during the 2nd quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 3,332 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $429,000 after buying an additional 372 shares during the period. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc grew its position in shares of NetApp by 29.1% during the 2nd quarter. Ensign Peak Advisors Inc now owns 248,675 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,029,000 after buying an additional 56,070 shares during the period. Profund Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 6.8% during the second quarter. Profund Advisors LLC now owns 4,247 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $547,000 after buying an additional 271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ProShare Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in NetApp by 6.5% in the second quarter. ProShare Advisors LLC now owns 38,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,950,000 after buying an additional 2,349 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.