NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Morgan Stanley Analyst Says

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price lifted by equities research analysts at Morgan Stanley from $84.00 to $106.00 in a report issued on Tuesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price target indicates a potential upside of 6.46% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other research analysts also recently issued reports on NTAP. Evercore ISI reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. TD Cowen cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $153.00 to $113.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $121.40.

NetApp Stock Down 1.5%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $99.57 on Tuesday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $89.38 and its 200 day simple moving average is $108.13. The company has a market cap of $20.25 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 249,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $20,438,269.95. This represents a 3.29% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Anders Gustafsson bought 2,800 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were acquired at an average cost of $91.00 per share, with a total value of $254,800.00. Following the completion of the purchase, the director now owns 6,348 shares in the company, valued at $577,668. This represents a 78.92% increase in their position. The disclosure for this purchase can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 28,724 shares of company stock valued at $2,520,032 in the last ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 2.3% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,375,363,000 after purchasing an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,096,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $623,383,000 after acquiring an additional 72,223 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 18.8% during the 1st quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC now owns 3,546,548 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $311,529,000 after acquiring an additional 560,218 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.3% during the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $308,107,000 after acquiring an additional 384,362 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 8.0% during the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,653,000 after acquiring an additional 220,393 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.