NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the fifteen research firms that are presently covering the stock, Marketbeat.com reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have given a hold recommendation and five have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1 year target price among analysts that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $169.3333.

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $200.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Northland Securities upped their price objective on NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $199.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Saturday. Finally, Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on NetApp from $88.00 to $137.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th.

NetApp Trading Up 0.7%

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $161.61 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $31.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.41, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a current ratio of 1.44, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $125.92 and its 200-day simple moving average is $112.27. NetApp has a 12-month low of $93.69 and a 12-month high of $192.83.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.27 by ($0.24). The company had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $1.93 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 8.700-9.000 EPS and its Q1 2027 guidance at 2.050-2.150 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 7.16 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 29th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 10th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 10th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is 32.70%.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, June 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $163.48, for a total value of $163,480.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 32,297 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,279,913.56. This represents a 3.00% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 225 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, June 1st. The shares were sold at an average price of $171.09, for a total value of $38,495.25. Following the completion of the sale, the chief accounting officer directly owned 1,090 shares in the company, valued at $186,488.10. This trade represents a 17.11% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold 3,500 shares of company stock worth $448,955 in the last three months. 0.28% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Parallel Advisors LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.1% in the fourth quarter. Parallel Advisors LLC now owns 5,007 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $536,000 after purchasing an additional 101 shares during the last quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 68.7% in the fourth quarter. Park Square Financial Group LLC now owns 253 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $29,000 after purchasing an additional 103 shares during the last quarter. Assetmark Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 3.0% in the first quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 3,540 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $362,000 after purchasing an additional 104 shares during the last quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 5.8% in the fourth quarter. Transcend Capital Advisors LLC now owns 1,953 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 107 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Fifth Third Bancorp grew its holdings in NetApp by 0.9% in the fourth quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 12,559 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,345,000 after purchasing an additional 108 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.