NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Upgraded to Overweight at JPMorgan Chase & Co.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was upgraded by JPMorgan Chase & Co. from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating in a report issued on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm presently has a $160.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price objective suggests a potential upside of 31.20% from the company’s previous close.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the stock. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on NetApp from $127.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on NetApp in a research note on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $138.27.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $121.95 on Monday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.84, a current ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $122.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $124.04. The stock has a market capitalization of $24.79 billion, a PE ratio of 22.42, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 123.63% and a net margin of 17.78%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.83 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 326 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $117.44, for a total transaction of $38,285.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $36,922,233.58. This trade represents a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth about $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth about $44,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.