NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Now Covered by Analysts at Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer began coverage on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat reports. The firm issued a market perform rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the subject of several other reports. Barclays increased their target price on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Stifel Nicolaus upped their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a research report on Monday, August 12th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Performance

NetApp stock opened at $119.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $24.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.38, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.54 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $121.08 and a 200-day moving average of $121.74. NetApp has a 52 week low of $76.41 and a 52 week high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.84 EPS. On average, analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 40.62%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total value of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $281,000. Bleakley Financial Group LLC boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 5.3% in the 1st quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 8,115 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $852,000 after purchasing an additional 405 shares during the period. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 19.5% in the 1st quarter. State Board of Administration of Florida Retirement System now owns 293,504 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $30,809,000 after purchasing an additional 47,951 shares during the period. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.2% in the 1st quarter. Mitsubishi UFJ Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 267,040 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $28,031,000 after purchasing an additional 33,279 shares during the period. Finally, Blair William & Co. IL boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 11.4% in the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 19,411 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,038,000 after purchasing an additional 1,990 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

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.