UBS Group Issues Pessimistic Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) had its price target trimmed by UBS Group from $115.00 to $108.00 in a report issued on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider's stock.

Several other research firms have also recently issued reports on NTAP. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an "outperform" rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $153.00 to $113.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Barclays upgraded shares of NetApp from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $115.00 target price for the company in a research report on Wednesday, April 30th. Finally, Evercore ISI cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an "in-line" rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock 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 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $98.68. 7,013,958 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,920,207. 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 firm's 50 day simple moving average is $90.19 and its 200 day simple moving average is $107.01. The firm has a market cap of $20.07 billion, a P/E ratio of 18.14, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. NetApp has a 52-week low of $71.84 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 528 shares of the company's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 10th. The shares were 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 owns 12,900 shares in the company, valued at $1,194,282. This represents a 3.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company's 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares of the company's stock, valued at $20,438,269.95. This trade represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Manchester Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% in 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 during the period. 1248 Management LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at about $25,000. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 826.9% in the fourth quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 215 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter valued at about $29,000. 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.