NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Lowered to “Market Perform” at William Blair

William Blair lowered shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from an outperform rating to a market perform rating in a report published on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports.

NTAP has been the topic of several other research reports. Morgan Stanley raised NetApp from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $60.00 to $74.00 in a report on Wednesday, July 26th. Northland Securities reduced their price objective on NetApp from $89.00 to $88.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 24th. SpectralCast reaffirmed a maintains rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, June 1st. UBS Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $77.00 to $84.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, August 24th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a neutral rating and set a $75.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, August 24th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and ten have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $78.35.

NetApp Stock Down 2.0 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $76.17 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $15.90 billion, a PE ratio of 13.77, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.20 and a beta of 1.22. NetApp has a one year low of $58.08 and a one year high of $80.53. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $77.69 and its 200 day simple moving average is $70.70. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.74, a current ratio of 1.28 and a quick ratio of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 23rd. The data storage provider reported $1.15 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.07 by $0.08. The business had revenue of $1.43 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.41 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 85.69% and a net margin of 19.49%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was down 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.97 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp will post 4.48 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 25th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 6th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.63%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, October 5th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 36.17%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.58, for a total transaction of $69,314.18. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,770 shares in the company, valued at $1,016,236.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $79.58, for a total transaction of $69,314.18. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,770 shares in the company, valued at $1,016,236.60. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CAO Robert Parks sold 9,113 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, August 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $75.90, for a total transaction of $691,676.70. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 48,362 shares of company stock worth $3,787,230 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV raised its position in NetApp by 52.2% during the first quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 443 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 152 shares in the last quarter. Sunbelt Securities Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $28,000. Global Retirement Partners LLC raised its position in NetApp by 51.6% during the first quarter. Global Retirement Partners LLC now owns 464 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 158 shares in the last quarter. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Finally, Caldwell Sutter Capital Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the first quarter valued at approximately $34,000. 90.25% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.