NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $160.00 at TD Cowen

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target increased by TD Cowen from $145.00 to $160.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently commented on NTAP. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating for the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Evercore ISI raised their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $126.18 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 1 year low of $77.56 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $122.04 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.81.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp 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. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Bessemer Group Inc. boosted its position in NetApp by 46.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares in the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 8.9% during the third quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after buying an additional 24,651 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after buying an additional 8,305 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in shares of NetApp by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 132.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,963,000 after acquiring an additional 16,066 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.