NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Consensus Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $139.20.

A number of analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research 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 for the company in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, Northland Securities upped their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, 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 transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 51,159 shares of company stock valued at $6,096,859. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 59.6% in the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $211,637,000 after purchasing an additional 613,583 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.2% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Acadian Asset Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 17.5% during the 2nd 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. APG Asset Management US Inc. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $48,074,000. Finally, Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. increased its holdings in NetApp by 38.5% in the 3rd quarter. Robeco Institutional Asset Management B.V. now owns 1,232,852 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $152,270,000 after acquiring an additional 342,415 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Trading Down 1.5 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $116.28 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.38, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a fifty day moving average of $121.02 and a 200 day moving average of $123.19. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.80 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.79%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.24%.

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.