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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) has been assigned a consensus rating of "Hold" from the seventeen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 12 month price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $97.94.

Several research analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Raymond James reaffirmed a "market perform" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Wedbush lifted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus reissued a "buy" rating and set a $120.00 price objective (up from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, March 1st. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company an "outperform" rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays lifted their price objective on NetApp from $80.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Friday, March 1st.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 871 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.27, for a total transaction of $75,141.17. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,856 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $936,547.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 871 shares of the business's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $86.27, for a total transaction of $75,141.17. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 10,856 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $936,547.12. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 19th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.44, for a total value of $862,240.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 261,202 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,496,330.88. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 39,371 shares of company stock valued at $3,891,706. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 36.9% in the 1st quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 913 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $96,000 after acquiring an additional 246 shares during the last quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 254.8% in the 1st quarter. Los Angeles Capital Management LLC now owns 2,304,512 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $241,905,000 after purchasing an additional 1,654,942 shares during the period. NBC Securities Inc. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 6.4% in the 1st quarter. NBC Securities Inc. now owns 5,301 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $556,000 after purchasing an additional 318 shares during the period. CWM LLC grew its position in shares of NetApp by 15.2% in the 1st quarter. CWM LLC now owns 6,352 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $667,000 after purchasing an additional 839 shares during the period. Finally, Strategic Advocates LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $551,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock traded up $0.25 during midday trading on Friday, hitting $105.05. The stock had a trading volume of 1,016,998 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,958,252. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.68 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.82, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.28. NetApp has a 52 week low of $60.92 and a 52 week high of $112.48. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $95.80 and a 200 day simple moving average of $86.37. 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 (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.69 by $0.25. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. NetApp's quarterly revenue was up 5.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the business earned $1.02 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 5th will be issued a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, April 4th. This represents a $2.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.90%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is currently 45.45%.

NetApp Company Profile

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.