NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Average Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has received an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1-year target price among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $129.07.

A number of equities analysts have recently commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Tuesday, March 4th. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. This trade represents a 3.62 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,931 shares of company stock worth $6,252,759 over the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $815,402,000 after acquiring an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 5,858.0% during the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its position in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV raised its stake in NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $92.10 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $18.73 billion, a PE ratio of 16.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 12 month low of $89.88 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $112.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $118.27. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.26%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

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.