NetApp's (NTAP) "Market Perform" Rating Reaffirmed at William Blair

Key Points

• NetApp's stock has been reaffirmed with a "market perform" rating by William Blair, while other analysts have varying ratings and price targets ranging from $110.00 to $130.00.
• In its latest quarterly earnings, NetApp reported earnings per share of $1.19, missing estimates, although its revenue was slightly above expectations at $1.56 billion.
• Insider transactions show recent sales by executives, indicating a 4.23% decrease in Elizabeth M. O'callahan's shares and a 3.08% decrease for CEO George Kurian.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "market perform" rating restated by analysts at William Blair in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,RTT News reports.

A number of other brokerages have also recently weighed in on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a report on Thursday, July 17th. Wedbush reissued a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, October 10th. Argus reissued a "buy" rating and set a $130.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, August 29th. UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Bank of America raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 25th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and twelve have given a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $122.40.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.81 during trading hours on Thursday, hitting $120.66. The company had a trading volume of 176,697 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,058,843. NetApp has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $116.85 and a 200 day simple moving average of $104.16. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a quick ratio of 1.28 and a current ratio of 1.31. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.09 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 21.35, a PEG ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $1.54 by ($0.35). The business had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.54 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.24%. The business's revenue was up 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.00, for a total value of $119,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 22,628 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,692,732. This trade represents a 4.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $122.91, for a total value of $1,075,462.50. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 274,938 shares in the company, valued at $33,792,629.58. This represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 29,529 shares of company stock worth $3,362,874. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% during the first quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. 1248 Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter worth $25,000. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its holdings in NetApp by 287.9% in the second quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 256 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $27,000 after acquiring an additional 190 shares in the last quarter. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $28,000. Finally, Olde Wealth Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter worth $29,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.

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