NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective raised by Morgan Stanley from $132.00 to $146.00 in a research report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target points to a potential upside of 23.37% from the stock’s current price.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other reports. TD Cowen boosted their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Northland Securities lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $139.20.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $118.34 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $122.68 and a 200-day moving average of $124.08. The stock has a market cap of $24.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.75, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 31,549 shares of company stock valued at $3,864,316 over the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. DGS Capital Management LLC raised its position in NetApp by 18.3% in the third quarter. DGS Capital Management LLC now owns 4,676 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $578,000 after acquiring an additional 724 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 19.6% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 433,616 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $55,009,000 after purchasing an additional 71,165 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 343.1% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 227,933 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $28,152,000 after purchasing an additional 176,495 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB bought a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $160,000. Finally, World Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in NetApp by 6.1% in the third quarter. World Investment Advisors LLC now owns 7,998 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $988,000 after buying an additional 459 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.