NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Wells Fargo & Company Analyst Says

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

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer began coverage on NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Finally, Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Up 3.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $126.18 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.84 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 23.19, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $122.04 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.81.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm’s quarterly 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. On average, analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 38.24%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the 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 owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Robbins Farley acquired a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.