NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $140.00 at Wells Fargo & Company

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $135.00 to $140.00 in a research note released on Friday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on NTAP. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. UBS Group boosted their price target on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Down 3.4 %

NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $121.87 and its two-hundred day moving average is $122.49. The company has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.56 and a 52 week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.23 EPS. Analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Shareholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.70%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, January 3rd. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 38.24%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the sale, the director now owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $118.00, for a total transaction of $1,003,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 288,282 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,017,276. This trade represents a 2.86 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Bessemer Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 46.1% during the first quarter. Bessemer Group Inc. now owns 16,720 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $1,754,000 after purchasing an additional 5,273 shares during the last quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC grew its position in NetApp by 45.6% during the 1st quarter. CreativeOne Wealth LLC now owns 5,164 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $543,000 after purchasing an additional 1,618 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 39.4% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 393,975 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $41,357,000 after buying an additional 111,439 shares during the last quarter. SVB Wealth LLC boosted its stake in shares of NetApp by 5.2% in the first quarter. SVB Wealth LLC now owns 2,892 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $304,000 after buying an additional 142 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new stake in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $627,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.