Wedbush Reiterates Neutral Rating for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)

Key Points

• Wedbush has reiterated a "neutral" rating for NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) with a target price of $110.00, implying a potential downside of 3.46% from the current price.
• Recent earnings results showed a miss on EPS estimates with reported earnings of $1.19 compared to the consensus of $1.54, although revenue exceeded expectations at $1.56 billion.
• Institutional investors own 92.17% of NetApp's stock, indicating strong institutional confidence despite mixed analyst ratings.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report)'s stock had its "neutral" rating reissued by research analysts at Wedbush in a report issued on Friday,RTT News reports. They presently have a $110.00 target price on the data storage provider's stock. Wedbush's price objective suggests a potential downside of 3.46% from the stock's current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on NTAP. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research report on Monday, August 11th. Morgan Stanley set a $117.00 target price on NetApp in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Argus reaffirmed a "buy" rating and issued a $130.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, August 29th. Northland Securities increased their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Thursday, August 28th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a "hold (c+)" rating on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $121.40.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock traded down $6.37 on Friday, hitting $113.94. 4,304,049 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,986,076. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55, a current ratio of 1.31 and a quick ratio of 1.28. The company has a market capitalization of $22.74 billion, a PE ratio of 20.13, a PEG ratio of 2.61 and a beta of 1.45. NetApp has a 1-year low of $71.84 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company's fifty day moving average is $115.80 and its 200 day moving average is $103.55.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 27th. The data storage provider reported $1.19 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $1.54 by ($0.35). The firm had revenue of $1.56 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.56 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2026 guidance at 7.600-7.900 EPS. Q2 2026 guidance at 1.840-1.940 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,750 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $122.91, for a total transaction of $1,075,462.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 274,938 shares of the company's stock, valued at $33,792,629.58. This trade represents a 3.08% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 779 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $121.87, for a total value of $94,936.73. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 28,529 shares of company stock valued at $3,243,874. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% in the 1st 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 acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $25,000. Harbour Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 287.9% in the 2nd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 256 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 190 shares during the period. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $28,000. Finally, Olde Wealth Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $29,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

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.

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