NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, eleven have assigned a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $137.40.

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays increased their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities increased their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s 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 transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.3% during the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $121.22 on Wednesday. NetApp has a 12 month low of $83.62 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $122.92 and a two-hundred day moving average of $123.88. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The firm has a market cap of $24.65 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.28, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.83 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, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

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.