Northland Securities Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target raised by equities research analysts at Northland Securities from $108.00 to $120.00 in a report issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “market perform” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Northland Securities’ price target suggests a potential downside of 5.33% from the stock’s current price.

Other equities analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup boosted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. Loop Capital raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $131.94.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $126.75 on Friday. NetApp has a twelve month low of $77.46 and a twelve month high of $135.01. 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 firm has a market cap of $25.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $121.77 and its 200-day simple moving average is $122.39.

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, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in NetApp by 11.8% in the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management raised its stake in NetApp by 1.4% in the 2nd 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 period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 4.3% in the 2nd quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its holdings in 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 purchasing an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co boosted its position in NetApp by 0.5% during the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,437,000 after purchasing an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.