NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Receives Average Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has been assigned an average recommendation of “Hold” from the seventeen analysts that are covering the firm, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and six have given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $127.73.

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Bank of America upgraded shares of NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Barclays cut their price target on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $83.28 on Tuesday. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $99.46 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $113.85. NetApp has a 12-month low of $71.84 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The firm has a market cap of $16.94 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.31, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.31. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.50%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 38.52%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.03, for a total value of $1,045,755.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 271,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $33,375,824.46. This represents a 3.04 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 50,176 shares of company stock valued at $5,445,901. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Migdal Insurance & Financial Holdings Ltd. purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Assetmark Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 826.9% during the 4th quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 241 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,000 after purchasing an additional 215 shares during the last quarter. Synergy Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 4th quarter valued at about $32,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. raised its holdings in NetApp by 929.6% in the fourth quarter. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. now owns 278 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 251 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Golden State Wealth Management LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter worth about $35,000. 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.