NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Cut to “Neutral” at Susquehanna

Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a positive rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $130.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $155.00.

Other equities research analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price target on the stock in a report on Monday, December 16th. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, January 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $137.53.

NetApp Trading Down 1.4 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $117.90 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.67, a P/E/G ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $120.88 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.98. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp has a 12-month low of $83.80 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd were paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.76%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 288,282 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 64,562 shares of company stock valued at $7,687,180 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth about $27,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth approximately $26,000. Assetmark Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 826.9% during the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the period. Synergy Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $32,000. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $35,000. 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.