NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $135.00 at Citigroup

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price raised by Citigroup from $130.00 to $135.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $134.00.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market cap 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 stock has a 50 day moving average of $121.87 and a 200-day moving average of $122.49.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 119.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts forecast 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 given a dividend of $0.52 per share. 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 (DPR) is 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The stock was 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 directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 59.6% during the 2nd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 1,643,146 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $211,637,000 after acquiring an additional 613,583 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.2% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 5,985,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $738,280,000 after purchasing an additional 453,324 shares during the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $56,313,000. Acadian Asset Management LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 17.5% in the 2nd quarter. Acadian Asset Management LLC now owns 2,791,599 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $359,517,000 after purchasing an additional 416,233 shares in the last quarter. Finally, APG Asset Management US Inc. acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth about $48,074,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.