Northland Securities Issues Positive Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective lifted by Northland Securities from $108.00 to $120.00 in a report released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on NTAP. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Bank of America boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $121.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $122.49. NetApp has a twelve month low of $77.56 and a twelve month high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 119.68%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.23 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 46.1% during the 1st quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 8.9% during the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $37,301,000 after buying an additional 24,651 shares during the period. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its position in NetApp by 4.7% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $24,057,000 after buying an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after buying an additional 82,378 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its position in NetApp by 132.1% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after buying an additional 16,066 shares during the period. 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.