NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Average Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts maintain a “Hold” consensus on NetApp, with 10 hold, six buy and one strong-buy ratings among 17 analysts. The average one-year price target is $193.86.
• NetApp reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results, posting $2.58 in EPS versus the $2.12 estimate and $2.02 billion in revenue, up 29.9% year over year.
• The company declared a quarterly dividend of $0.52 per share, equivalent to an annualized $2.08 payout and a 1.0% yield. Shares opened at $198.15, near the analyst target average and below the 52-week high of $209.06.

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) has received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seventeen analysts that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $193.8571.

A number of research firms have recently commented on NTAP. Northland Securities increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Susquehanna raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Weiss Ratings reissued a "buy (b-)" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, September 4th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Evercore set a $210.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 24th.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $198.15 on Tuesday. The firm has a market cap of $38.92 billion, a PE ratio of 27.95, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.13 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $93.69 and a fifty-two week high of $209.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a current ratio of 1.24. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $185.35 and a 200-day moving average price of $148.16.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%.The firm's revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $1.15 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. Equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is 29.34%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total transaction of $1,159,547.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,747 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,291.87. The trade was a 43.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, Director Deepak Ahuja sold 3,526 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $194.04, for a total transaction of $684,185.04. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 16,264 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,155,866.56. This trade represents a 17.82% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 55,074 shares of company stock worth $10,583,296. 0.36% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth about $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth $1,395,423,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at about $458,060,000. First Trust Advisors LP raised its position in NetApp by 127.0% during the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $374,549,000 after acquiring an additional 2,046,912 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $258,093,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc NASDAQ: NTAP is a data infrastructure and cloud storage company that helps organizations manage, protect and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds and public clouds. Its offerings are designed to support enterprise workloads such as databases, business applications, artificial intelligence and virtualized computing.

The company's portfolio includes all-flash and hybrid storage systems, cloud storage services, data management software and infrastructure-as-a-service solutions.

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