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

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target upped by stock analysts at Citigroup from $110.00 to $115.00 in a research report issued on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Citigroup’s price target indicates a potential upside of 6.70% from the company’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently weighed in on NTAP. Evercore ISI reduced their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $100.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $115.00 to $117.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley reaffirmed a “cautious” rating on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, May 20th. Wells Fargo & Company cut their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, July 17th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $119.21.

NetApp Stock Up 1.8%

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $107.78 on Monday. The business has a 50-day moving average of $104.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $101.05. The company has a market capitalization of $21.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.44 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a current ratio of 1.25 and a quick ratio of 1.22.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.90 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 126.96% and a net margin of 18.05%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $1.80 EPS. On average, analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $108.08, for a total value of $918,680.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 288,305 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,160,004.40. The trade was a 2.86% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, June 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total transaction of $29,828.54. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer owned 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. The trade was a 39.89% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 19,302 shares of company stock valued at $2,026,379 over the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Harbour Investments Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 287.9% in the 2nd quarter. Harbour Investments Inc. now owns 256 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 190 shares during the period. Harbor Asset Planning Inc. acquired a new position in NetApp during the second quarter worth $28,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its position in NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after acquiring an additional 251 shares in the last quarter. 1248 Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter valued at $25,000. Finally, Manchester Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 375.0% during the 1st quarter. Manchester Capital Management LLC now owns 285 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $25,000 after purchasing an additional 225 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.