NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have received a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $129.06.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock opened at $120.41 on Tuesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $135.01. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $122.92 and a 200 day moving average price of $120.29. The company has a market capitalization of $24.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.52, a PEG ratio of 4.48 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.73%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 17.5% in the second quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $359,517,000 after buying an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after acquiring an additional 82,378 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its holdings in NetApp by 26.5% in the 1st quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 2,148,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $225,532,000 after acquiring an additional 450,263 shares in the last quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. raised its position in NetApp by 11.9% during the first quarter. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. now owns 1,982,787 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $208,133,000 after acquiring an additional 211,204 shares during the period. Finally, Dimensional Fund Advisors LP grew its position in shares of NetApp by 12.8% in the second quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 1,737,578 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $223,806,000 after purchasing an additional 196,952 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.