Argus Reiterates “Buy” Rating for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)‘s stock had its “buy” rating restated by equities research analysts at Argus in a research note issued to investors on Friday,Benzinga reports. They presently have a $130.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock. Argus’ price objective would indicate a potential upside of 15.26% from the company’s previous close.

NTAP has been the topic of several other reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 17th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $150.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Thursday. Bank of America increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $125.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Monday, August 25th. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $108.00 to $114.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Citigroup upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 11th. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have assigned a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $124.07.

NetApp Stock Down 3.8%

NetApp stock opened at $112.79 on Friday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $106.77 and a 200-day moving average price of $100.07. The company has a quick ratio of 1.22, a current ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.55. NetApp has a twelve month low of $71.84 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $22.52 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.77 and a beta of 1.44.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results 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. NetApp had a net margin of 17.77% and a return on equity of 123.24%. The company had revenue of $1.73 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.72 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.80 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 3.8% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 302 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, June 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $98.77, for a total value of $29,828.54. Following the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 455 shares in the company, valued at $44,940.35. This represents a 39.89% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, August 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $105.90, for a total transaction of $105,900.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 23,251 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,462,280.90. This trade represents a 4.12% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 27,802 shares of company stock valued at $2,951,604. Company insiders own 0.28% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2.5% during the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,728,118 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,954,431,000 after purchasing an additional 686,188 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 16.8% during the second quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 7,112,316 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $756,665,000 after purchasing an additional 1,024,626 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in NetApp by 1.0% during the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,096,679 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $623,383,000 after purchasing an additional 72,223 shares during the last quarter. UBS AM A Distinct Business Unit of UBS Asset Management Americas LLC grew its stake in NetApp by 18.8% in 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 buying an additional 560,218 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,507,590 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $308,107,000 after buying an additional 384,362 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.