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

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has earned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the sixteen research firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have issued a hold recommendation and five have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month target price among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $100.60.

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on NTAP. Argus upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Stifel Nicolaus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $120.00 price target (up previously from $105.00) on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com lowered NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 7th. Wedbush lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI boosted their price objective on NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st.

NetApp Stock Up 3.2 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $107.95 on Tuesday. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $62.29 and a fifty-two week high of $112.48. The firm has a market cap of $22.28 billion, a P/E ratio of 24.53, a P/E/G ratio of 2.18 and a beta of 1.27. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $102.29 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $90.62. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00, a quick ratio of 1.11 and a current ratio of 1.15.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. The business had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.59 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. NetApp’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.02 EPS. Analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.16 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 24th. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 5th were issued a $0.50 dividend. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.85%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 45.45%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total value of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $15,660,024.75. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 7,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $102.75, for a total transaction of $770,625.00. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 152,409 shares in the company, valued at $15,660,024.75. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. ORG Partners LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 58.7% during the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after buying an additional 115 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. Finally, First Pacific Financial purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $29,000. 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.