Analysts Set NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) PT at $117.81

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $119.38.

A number of brokerages have recently issued reports on NTAP. Argus lifted their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Evercore ISI lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday. Finally, Susquehanna upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $155.00 and gave the stock a “positive” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $127.11 on Thursday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $126.33 and a 200 day moving average of $110.25. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The stock has a market cap of $26.16 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.39, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, July 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 65.8% in the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 88,615 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,812,000 after acquiring an additional 35,172 shares in the last quarter. Savant Capital LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 7.5% during the fourth quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $268,000 after buying an additional 211 shares during the period. TD Asset Management Inc increased its position in shares of NetApp by 127.0% during the fourth quarter. TD Asset Management Inc now owns 1,698,277 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $149,720,000 after buying an additional 950,204 shares during the period. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 46.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after buying an additional 5,273 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Headlands Technologies LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter worth about $473,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.