NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09, RTT News reports. 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 company’s quarterly revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 EPS.

NetApp Price Performance

NTAP stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a current ratio of 0.96 and a quick ratio of 0.91. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.87 and a 200-day simple moving average of $122.49. The firm has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a PE ratio of 22.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 1 year low of $77.56 and a 1 year high of $135.45.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Stockholders of record on Friday, January 3rd will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.24%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several research firms have weighed in on NTAP. Citigroup boosted their price target on NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday. UBS Group upped their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Evercore ISI upped their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock an “in-line” rating in a research note on Monday, August 12th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note 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 given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $134.00.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.47% 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.