NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Earns Market Perform Rating from Analysts at Oppenheimer

Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) in a research report released on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a market perform rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

A number of other research analysts also recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Citigroup lifted their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price target on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities 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 stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $119.68 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $121.08 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.74. The company has a market cap of $24.51 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.38, a P/E/G 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. NetApp has a 1 year low of $76.41 and a 1 year high of $135.01.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s 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 directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at approximately $36,922,233.58. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. UMB Bank n.a. lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the second quarter. UMB Bank n.a. now owns 784 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Aviso Wealth Management lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.4% during the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after acquiring an additional 83 shares during the period. Waldron Private Wealth LLC lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 4.3% during the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Quarry LP lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 11.7% during the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after acquiring an additional 92 shares during the period. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its stake in NetApp by 0.5% in the second quarter. Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co now owns 18,920 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $2,437,000 after buying an additional 95 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.