NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Reaches New 1-Year High at $131.05

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $131.05 and last traded at $130.75, with a volume of 624978 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $129.09.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Susquehanna lifted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the company a “positive” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $117.81.

NetApp Price Performance

The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.51 and its 200 day simple moving average is $103.47. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.47, a P/E/G ratio of 5.27 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The company had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.55%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 44.83%.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,334 shares of company stock worth $5,103,798 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in NetApp by 66.5% in the third quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 182,607 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $13,856,000 after purchasing an additional 72,901 shares during the last quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. acquired a new position in NetApp during the third quarter valued at approximately $1,257,000. Banque Pictet & Cie SA bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth $482,000. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 7.3% in the 3rd quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 3,489 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $265,000 after buying an additional 238 shares during the period. Finally, Citigroup Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 0.3% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 435,240 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $33,026,000 after buying an additional 1,262 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Company Profile

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.