Citigroup Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) had its price objective upped by Citigroup from $105.00 to $110.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider's stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Wall Street Zen downgraded shares of NetApp from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday. Bank of America upgraded shares of 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 research note on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley reissued a "cautious" rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Finally, Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. One 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 stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $119.27.

NetApp Trading Up 5.0%

NTAP stock traded up $4.89 during midday trading on Monday, reaching $103.66. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,701,739 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,920,773. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $90.31 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $106.81. NetApp has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 19.06, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts' consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

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 given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.01%. NetApp's payout ratio is presently 36.62%.

Insider Activity

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $92.58, for a total transaction of $48,882.24. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC boosted its holdings 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 valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC grew 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 period. Moors & Cabot Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $337,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. Finally, Utah Retirement Systems grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.3% during the 4th quarter. Utah Retirement Systems now owns 34,152 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,964,000 after buying an additional 100 shares during the period. 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.