NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Upgraded at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research report report published on Wednesday morning, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have $115.00 target price on the data storage provider's stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on NetApp from $153.00 to $113.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. TD Cowen lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America raised shares of NetApp from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Citigroup reduced their target price on NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. Eleven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $123.07.

NetApp Trading Up 2.9 %

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $2.60 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $92.33. The company had a trading volume of 1,528,425 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,935,234. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 12 month low of $71.84 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $89.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $110.25. The stock has a market cap of $18.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 16.97, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.25%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, April 4th. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, April 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total value of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson purchased 2,800 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were purchased at an average cost of $91.00 per share, for a total transaction of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 6,348 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $577,668. This represents a 78.92 % increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,176 shares of company stock valued at $5,095,701 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 20.4% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $362,544,000 after acquiring an additional 529,471 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $346,653,000 after acquiring an additional 220,393 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. raised its stake in NetApp by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $335,215,000 after acquiring an additional 12,919 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

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.