NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Releases Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.09 EPS

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09, RTT News reports. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.23 EPS.

NetApp Stock Up 2.7 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.75 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $121.77 and its 200-day moving average price is $122.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.46 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The company has a market capitalization of $25.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.63%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTAP has been the topic of several research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. UBS Group upped their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer started coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.