NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Sets New 52-Week Low – What’s Next?

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) reached a new 52-week low during trading on Thursday . The company traded as low as $81.86 and last traded at $82.85, with a volume of 757712 shares trading hands. The stock had previously closed at $90.49.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the subject of a number of research analyst reports. Barclays cut their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen cut their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.07.

NetApp Stock Down 6.8 %

The firm has a market cap of $15.48 billion, a PE ratio of 13.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $105.85 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $116.14.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.73%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Insider Activity

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. The trade was a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares in the company, valued at $1,075,309.20. This represents a 62.28 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 50,627 shares of company stock worth $5,498,573 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 1.7% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 26,443,974 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,069,617,000 after purchasing an additional 429,343 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 2.0% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,261,170 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,267,357,000 after buying an additional 199,384 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after buying an additional 888,671 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $738,280,000 after buying an additional 453,324 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in NetApp by 20.4% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,544,000 after buying an additional 529,471 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.