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

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price increased by investment analysts at Citigroup from $130.00 to $135.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 9.01% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Northland Securities lifted their target price on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Evercore ISI increased their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a report on Monday, August 12th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Down 2.2 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded down $2.84 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $123.84. 2,993,176 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,829,462. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.77 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $122.39. NetApp has a 1-year low of $77.56 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a market cap of $25.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 24.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 earnings per share. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. The trade was a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. lifted its stake in NetApp by 46.1% in the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after acquiring an additional 5,273 shares during the period. Intech Investment Management LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 8.9% in the 3rd quarter. Intech Investment Management LLC now owns 302,010 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $37,301,000 after purchasing an additional 24,651 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 4.7% in the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 186,777 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $24,057,000 after purchasing an additional 8,305 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 2,405,363 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $309,811,000 after purchasing an additional 82,378 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers increased its position in shares of NetApp by 132.1% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 28,230 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,963,000 after buying an additional 16,066 shares during the period. 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.