StockNews.com Downgrades NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) to Hold

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

A number of other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Northland Securities increased their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five 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 $137.53.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $3.46 during trading on Tuesday, reaching $119.56. 1,106,203 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,337,966. NetApp has a 52-week low of $83.80 and a 52-week 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 company has a 50-day moving average of $120.98 and a 200-day moving average of $122.02. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 64,110 shares of company stock worth $7,632,601. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Boston Partners lifted its holdings in NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after buying an additional 729,394 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its holdings in NetApp by 276.9% in the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new stake in NetApp in the 4th quarter worth approximately $64,683,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other 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.