NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Lowered to Hold Rating by StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Friday.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on NTAP. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Keefe, Bruyette & Woods upgraded shares of NetApp to an “outperform” rating in a research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $132.07.

NetApp Stock Down 15.4 %

NTAP opened at $100.00 on Friday. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $119.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $121.86. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a current ratio of 0.91. NetApp has a twelve month low of $88.49 and a twelve month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $20.33 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.38, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.08%. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 16th. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,395,024.75. This trade represents a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of NTAP. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares in the last quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% during the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares in the last quarter. Boston Partners increased its stake in NetApp by 53.9% during the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in NetApp by 276.9% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after purchasing an additional 654,626 shares in the last quarter. 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.