TD Cowen Issues Positive Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective upped by TD Cowen from $145.00 to $160.00 in a research report report published on Friday, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the stock. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a “market perform” rating for the company. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Citigroup lifted 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. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Down 3.4 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. NetApp has a 1-year low of $77.56 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $121.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.69. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed 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. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at about $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC boosted 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 buying an additional 340 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is 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.