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

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have earned an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are presently covering the company, Marketbeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month target price among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $129.06.

Several analysts have recently commented on the company. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Barclays upped their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $117.21 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $121.11 and its 200-day moving average is $121.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.00 billion, a PE ratio of 22.89, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52 week low of $76.41 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.84 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.63%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, 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 value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth about $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $32,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the first quarter worth about $35,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.