NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $114.00 at UBS Group

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price raised by UBS Group from $108.00 to $114.00 in a report released on Thursday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also commented on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price objective on NetApp from $115.00 to $100.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley assumed coverage on NetApp in a report on Thursday, August 21st. They set an “equal weight” rating and a $115.00 price objective for the company. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 11th. Barclays boosted their price objective on NetApp from $117.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $110.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Friday, May 30th. Six analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $123.64.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NTAP opened at $117.22 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.39, a quick ratio of 1.22 and a current ratio of 1.25. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $106.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $100.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.49 billion, a P/E ratio of 20.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.75 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp has a 52 week low of $71.84 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, May 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.93 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.90 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $1.73 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.72 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.22% and a net margin of 17.77%.The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $1.80 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.8%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 36.75%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $101.78, for a total value of $865,130.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 296,805 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $30,208,812.90. This trade represents a 2.78% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 27,802 shares of company stock worth $2,951,604 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Cypress Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 129.1% during the second quarter. Cypress Capital Advisors LLC now owns 9,834 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,048,000 after purchasing an additional 5,542 shares during the period. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 35.9% during the second quarter. Orion Porfolio Solutions LLC now owns 9,589 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,022,000 after purchasing an additional 2,533 shares during the period. MASTERINVEST Kapitalanlage GmbH bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $1,603,000. Stance Capital LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at $2,438,000. Finally, Cim Investment Management Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 99.6% during the second quarter. Cim Investment Management Inc. now owns 13,102 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,459,000 after purchasing an additional 6,538 shares during the period. 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.