Analysts Set NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target at $139.20

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has earned an average rating of “Hold” from the sixteen ratings firms that are currently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have issued a hold recommendation and six have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $139.20.

Several research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. TD Cowen raised their target price on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th.

NetApp Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $123.72 on Thursday. NetApp has a twelve month low of $83.80 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company’s 50 day moving average is $120.92 and its 200 day moving average is $122.13. The company has a market cap of $25.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.90 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating 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 firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.68%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total value of $1,003,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. The trade was a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 51,610 shares of company stock valued at $6,123,351. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 57.4% during the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 7,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,017,000 after acquiring an additional 2,879 shares during the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company raised its stake in NetApp by 4.7% during the second quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares in the last quarter. Algert Global LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 26.9% during the second quarter. Algert Global LLC now owns 4,108 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $529,000 after purchasing an additional 870 shares during the last quarter. Creative Planning grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 32.3% in the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 23,928 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,082,000 after buying an additional 5,843 shares in the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 22.5% in the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 11,981 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,543,000 after buying an additional 2,203 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.