NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $140.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price boosted by Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $140.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other equities analysts have also issued reports about the stock. Barclays upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday. Bank of America increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup boosted their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Evercore ISI lifted their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. NetApp has a 12-month low of $77.56 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $121.87 and a 200 day moving average of $122.49.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 119.68%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $1.23 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm 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 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. 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 ninety days. 0.47% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter worth $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during 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.