NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $106.00 at Morgan Stanley

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective increased by research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $84.00 to $106.00 in a note issued to investors on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price indicates a potential upside of 5.14% from the company’s current price.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $90.00 to $105.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Finally, Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and reduced their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $121.40.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $100.82 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $20.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $89.01 and a 200 day moving average price of $108.24. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

Insider Activity

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,375,363,000 after buying an additional 597,956 shares during the period. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 1.0% in the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,096,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $623,383,000 after purchasing an additional 72,223 shares during the period. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its position in NetApp by 18.8% in the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,546,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $311,529,000 after purchasing an additional 560,218 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. grew its position in NetApp by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $308,107,000 after purchasing an additional 384,362 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its position in NetApp by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 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.