NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $206.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target hoisted by Bank of America from $180.00 to $206.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the subject of several other reports. UBS Group reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $160.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Wedbush increased their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, May 29th. Argus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Monday, June 1st. Susquehanna increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $185.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised shares of NetApp from a “hold (c+)” rating to a “buy (b-)” rating in a research note on Monday, June 8th. Five research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $184.08.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $180.77 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $35.47 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.42, a PEG ratio of 2.49 and a beta of 1.44. NetApp has a 1-year low of $93.69 and a 1-year high of $209.06. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $177.45 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $139.96. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a current ratio of 1.44 and a quick ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The firm had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that NetApp will post 7.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total value of $193,820.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president directly owned 30,297 shares in the company, valued at $5,872,164.54. The trade was a 3.20% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total transaction of $533,283.84. Following the transaction, the president owned 46,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,514,454.40. The trade was a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders sold a total of 55,072 shares of company stock valued at $8,719,520 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. California State Teachers Retirement System raised its stake in NetApp by 15,681.5% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 48,620,175 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $7,524,458,000 after buying an additional 48,312,092 shares in the last quarter. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $2,925,168,000. State Street Corp raised its position in shares of NetApp by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. State Street Corp now owns 10,192,354 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,091,499,000 after acquiring an additional 115,451 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $1,395,423,000. Finally, Wellington Management Group LLP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 17.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wellington Management Group LLP now owns 4,915,553 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $582,296,000 after purchasing an additional 718,409 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Key Headlines Impacting NetApp

Here are the key news stories impacting NetApp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: NetApp reported fiscal Q1 revenue of approximately $2.03 billion, up 30% year over year and well above the roughly $1.84 billion analyst estimate. Non-GAAP EPS was $2.58, beating the $2.12-$2.13 consensus and rising from $1.55 a year earlier. NetApp Surpasses Q1 Earnings and Revenue Estimates
• Positive Sentiment: The company raised its fiscal 2027 outlook to approximately $8.0-$8.2 billion in revenue and $9.73-$10.03 in EPS, above analysts’ prior expectations of about $7.5 billion and $8.68, respectively. Second-quarter guidance also exceeded consensus estimates. NetApp Earnings Report
• Positive Sentiment: Growth was broad-based: all-flash array revenue increased 47% to $1.309 billion, while public-cloud revenue rose 28% to $206 million. NetApp also announced the acquisition of AI data-infrastructure company DataPelago, supporting its exposure to AI and hybrid-cloud spending. NetApp Revenue Rises to Record Fiscal Q1
• Positive Sentiment: NetApp said its ONTAP solutions were validated for VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1, potentially improving its positioning in private-cloud deployments and enterprise data management. NetApp Supports VMware Cloud Foundation 9.1
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst targets remain mixed, with a reported median of $170 and an average brokerage target near $179.77, suggesting the stock’s valuation and substantial recent gains had already priced in considerable optimism.
• Negative Sentiment: Investors appeared concerned about execution beneath the headline beat. Non-GAAP gross margin was 70.6%, product gross margin declined sequentially amid higher component costs and product mix changes, and free cash flow fell to $401 million as inventory increased.
• Negative Sentiment: Recent insider activity shows 16 open-market sales and no purchases over six months, including sales by President Cesar Cernuda. This may have added to profit-taking pressure, although insider sales do not necessarily indicate a change in business fundamentals.

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.