NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Now Covered by StockNews.com

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) in a research note published on Thursday morning. The brokerage issued a hold rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of NetApp from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $66.00 to $58.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 13th. Cowen lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $80.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $75.00 to $73.00 and set a neutral rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Raymond James lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $80.00 to $75.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Finally, Northland Securities lowered their price target on shares of NetApp from $101.00 to $99.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $76.25.

NetApp Stock Down 0.8 %

NTAP stock opened at $61.47 on Thursday. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $65.33 and its 200-day simple moving average is $66.08. The company has a market capitalization of $13.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.29. NetApp has a 12 month low of $58.08 and a 12 month high of $90.20.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.06. The business had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.93% and a return on equity of 103.19%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 4.28 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 26th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, April 6th will be given a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 34.42%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.40, for a total value of $135,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 156,976 shares in the company, valued at $9,481,350.40. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total value of $1,081,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 44,829 shares in the company, valued at $2,693,774.61. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 2,250 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, January 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.40, for a total transaction of $135,900.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 156,976 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,481,350.40. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,500 shares of company stock worth $1,951,740 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $218,000. Nordwand Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $1,758,000. Smithbridge Asset Management Inc. DE purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $257,000. Voya Investment Management LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.9% in the fourth quarter. Voya Investment Management LLC now owns 245,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $14,748,000 after purchasing an additional 4,573 shares during the period. Finally, Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.5% in the fourth quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 388,990 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $23,363,000 after purchasing an additional 5,600 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 87.92% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

(Get Rating)

NetApp, Inc provides software, systems, and services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. The company offers cloud data services, including NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for AWS, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, NetApp Cloud Sync, NetApp Cloud Secure, NetApp Cloud Tiering, NetApp SaaS Backup, NetApp Kubernetes Service, and NetApp Cloud Insights.