NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Has Consensus Target Price of $193.86

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have earned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the seventeen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, six have issued a buy recommendation and one has assigned a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $193.86.

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Evercore set a $210.00 price objective on NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 24th. Zacks Research upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, September 9th. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup lowered their target price on NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total value of $1,159,547.40. Following the sale, the director directly owned 7,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,291.87. This represents a 43.40% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.74, for a total transaction of $184,740.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president owned 30,737 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,678,353.38. The trade was a 3.15% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last three months, insiders have sold 108,524 shares of company stock valued at $21,271,576. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $458,060,000. Jefferies Financial Group Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter worth $14,869,000. National Pension Service raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 13.6% in the fourth quarter. National Pension Service now owns 180,917 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $19,374,000 after purchasing an additional 21,643 shares during the last quarter. Swedbank AB raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 22.0% in the fourth quarter. Swedbank AB now owns 97,086 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $10,397,000 after purchasing an additional 17,520 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Hillsdale Investment Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $910,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Up 1.6%

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $204.41 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $188.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $151.63. The company has a market cap of $40.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.83, a PEG ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $209.06.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. The business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.15 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 29.34%.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc develops intelligent data infrastructure and data management solutions for enterprises, service providers, and government organizations. The company helps customers store, manage, protect, and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid multicloud infrastructures.

Its portfolio includes enterprise storage systems, all-flash arrays, cloud-connected storage, object storage, and data management software. NetApp’s offerings include the ONTAP data management operating system, AFF and ASA storage systems, StorageGRID object storage, and BlueXP, a platform designed to help customers manage data and storage resources across multiple environments.