NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen research firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $100.60.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Evercore ISI upped their price target on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reaffirmed a “buy” rating and set a $120.00 target price (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays raised their price target on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, April 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock valued at $4,139,505 over the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. SG Americas Securities LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 22.5% in the first quarter. SG Americas Securities LLC now owns 185,235 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $19,444,000 after acquiring an additional 33,975 shares during the last quarter. Empowered Funds LLC raised its position in NetApp by 136.6% in the 1st quarter. Empowered Funds LLC now owns 29,017 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,046,000 after purchasing an additional 16,751 shares during the last quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP boosted its position in NetApp by 7.8% in the 1st quarter. Quantbot Technologies LP now owns 29,649 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,112,000 after buying an additional 2,155 shares during the last quarter. LSV Asset Management increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 742,659 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $77,957,000 after buying an additional 115,276 shares during the period. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. raised its position in shares of NetApp by 21.3% during the first quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 21,551 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,262,000 after acquiring an additional 3,789 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Up 3.2 %

NTAP stock opened at $107.95 on Tuesday. The company has a market capitalization of $22.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.53, a PEG ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $102.29 and a 200-day simple moving average of $90.62. The company has a current ratio of 1.15, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00. NetApp has a twelve month low of $62.29 and a twelve month high of $112.48.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The company had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.21% and a return on equity of 109.49%. The company’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.02 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.45%.

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.