NetApp's (NTAP) Neutral Rating Reaffirmed at Wedbush

Wedbush reissued their neutral rating on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) in a report published on Friday morning,RTT News reports. Wedbush currently has a $110.00 target price on the data storage provider's stock.

Several other research firms also recently commented on NTAP. Susquehanna downgraded NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $115.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Friday. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, UBS Group reduced their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $118.93.

NetApp Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded down $0.53 on Friday, hitting $98.68. 7,013,958 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,920,207. NetApp has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week 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 stock has a 50 day simple moving average of $90.19 and a 200-day simple moving average of $106.94. The company has a market cap of $20.07 billion, a PE ratio of 18.14, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.72 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $1.80 earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.11%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total value of $48,882.24. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 1.8% in the 4th quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $516,000 after acquiring an additional 80 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $438,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $64,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 3.6% in the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $337,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 50.0% in the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.