NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Neutral Rating from Wedbush

Wedbush reaffirmed their neutral rating on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) in a report published on Friday,RTT News reports. They currently have a $110.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock, down from their prior price target of $120.00.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on NTAP. TD Cowen dropped their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $130.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Twelve research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $132.07.

NetApp Stock Down 15.4 %

NTAP stock opened at $100.00 on Friday. NetApp has a 52 week low of $88.49 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $20.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $119.85 and its two-hundred day moving average is $121.86. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total transaction of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $14,880,359.82. This trade represents a 9.21 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Park Square Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at $36,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in NetApp during the fourth quarter worth $38,040,000. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 2.9% in the fourth quarter. Azzad Asset Management Inc. ADV now owns 19,907 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,311,000 after buying an additional 565 shares during the last quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 36.1% in the fourth quarter. ABLE Financial Group LLC now owns 12,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,471,000 after buying an additional 3,363 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Integrated Advisors Network LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 602.8% during the 4th quarter. Integrated Advisors Network LLC now owns 29,391 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,412,000 after acquiring an additional 25,209 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is 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.