NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report released on Wednesday.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on the company. Susquehanna cut NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and dropped their target price for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays raised their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.33.

NetApp Stock Up 0.0 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $124.55 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $25.32 billion, a PE ratio of 22.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.86 and a beta of 1.23. The company has a 50-day moving average of $120.05 and a 200 day moving average of $121.84. NetApp has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The company’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. As a group, research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total value of $2,529,780.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Creative Planning lifted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.7% in the 3rd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,001 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $3,211,000 after buying an additional 2,073 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 139.9% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,004 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $387,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752 shares during the period. Raymond James & Associates boosted its position in NetApp by 3.1% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 360,394 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $44,512,000 after purchasing an additional 10,731 shares in the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the 3rd quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 279.1% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 57,470 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 42,312 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.