NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Rating Increased to Strong-Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a buy rating to a strong-buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on NTAP. Barclays upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $114.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a report on Monday, June 8th. The Goldman Sachs Group reaffirmed a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, nine have issued a Hold rating and one has assigned a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $169.33.

NetApp Stock Up 2.9%

NetApp stock opened at $165.76 on Tuesday. The stock has a market cap of $32.53 billion, a PE ratio of 26.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $155.14 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.40. NetApp has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $192.83.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). NetApp had a return on equity of 117.23% and a net margin of 18.43%.The business had revenue of $1.95 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.93 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp will post 7.16 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.70%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $170.92, for a total value of $170,920.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 31,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $5,349,283.24. The trade was a 3.10% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 275 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, May 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.00, for a total transaction of $33,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer owned 1,090 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $130,800. This trade represents a 20.15% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 52,964 shares of company stock worth $8,181,642. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Insight Wealth Strategies LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $5,845,000. Tema ETFs LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 7.9% during the 2nd quarter. Tema ETFs LLC now owns 3,977 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $615,000 after acquiring an additional 290 shares during the last quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB raised its stake in NetApp by 20.8% during the 2nd quarter. E. Ohman J or Asset Management AB now owns 9,283 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,437,000 after acquiring an additional 1,600 shares during the last quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB raised its stake in NetApp by 11.4% during the 2nd quarter. Handelsbanken Fonder AB now owns 144,210 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $22,318,000 after acquiring an additional 14,754 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Revolve Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $339,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.