NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Hits New 12-Month High on Better-Than-Expected Earnings

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) reached a new 52-week high on Friday after the company announced better than expected quarterly earnings. The company traded as high as $135.10 and last traded at $128.41, with a volume of 420238 shares traded. The stock had previously closed at $126.68.

The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.62%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Susquehanna restated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Evercore ISI raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. TD Cowen raised their price target on NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.69.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total value of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Unigestion Holding SA boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 926.1% during the 3rd quarter. Unigestion Holding SA now owns 283,674 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $35,022,000 after acquiring an additional 256,028 shares in the last quarter. TCW Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.9% in the 3rd quarter. TCW Group Inc. now owns 502,438 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $62,056,000 after purchasing an additional 65,223 shares during the period. Fortem Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Fortem Financial Group LLC now owns 9,306 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,149,000 after buying an additional 934 shares in the last quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 93.2% during the 3rd quarter. Chiron Investment Management LLC now owns 11,106 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,372,000 after buying an additional 5,357 shares during the period. Finally, Coldstream Capital Management Inc. boosted its stake in NetApp by 5.7% in the 3rd quarter. Coldstream Capital Management Inc. now owns 3,080 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $380,000 after buying an additional 166 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7 %

The stock has a market capitalization of $25.76 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.03, a PEG ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $121.77 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $122.39. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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.