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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been given an average rating of “Hold” by the seventeen analysts that are currently covering the company, MarketBeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating on the company. The average twelve-month price target among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $119.27.

A number of equities research analysts have commented on the company. Loop Capital decreased their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods raised NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Morgan Stanley reissued a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group decreased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $108.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their target price on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $103.66 on Wednesday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $90.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $106.79. The stock has a market cap of $21.09 billion, a PE ratio of 19.06, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. NetApp has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.80 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 23rd. Investors of record on Thursday, July 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, July 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.01%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 36.62%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $81.83, for a total transaction of $695,555.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 249,765 shares in the company, valued at $20,438,269.95. The trade was a 3.29% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total value of $1,775,594.40. Following the transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 28,724 shares of company stock worth $2,520,032. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. M&T Bank Corp boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 4.8% in the fourth quarter. M&T Bank Corp now owns 12,794 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,485,000 after purchasing an additional 581 shares during the period. Versor Investments LP purchased a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $395,000. AMJ Financial Wealth Management increased its holdings in NetApp by 120.7% during the 4th quarter. AMJ Financial Wealth Management now owns 68,897 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,998,000 after purchasing an additional 37,684 shares during the period. Brandywine Global Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp during the 4th quarter worth $5,151,000. Finally, Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 1.7% during 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 period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.