NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $145.00 Price Target at Stifel Nicolaus

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target boosted by Stifel Nicolaus from $140.00 to $145.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Stifel Nicolaus currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the company. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Down 3.4 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.49. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.49, a P/E/G ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were 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 $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last 90 days. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. UMB Bank n.a. grew its position in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the 2nd quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $101,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management boosted its stake in NetApp by 1.4% in the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 4.3% during the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Quarry LP raised its position in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the 2nd quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 0.5% in the 2nd quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.