NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Coverage Initiated at Oppenheimer

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

A number of other analysts have also recently weighed in on the stock. Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price target for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Susquehanna reiterated a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Down 0.7 %

NTAP stock traded down $0.86 during trading on Wednesday, hitting $117.21. The company had a trading volume of 1,973,045 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,807,237. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.89, a PEG ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. NetApp has a 52-week low of $76.41 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $121.17 and a 200-day simple moving average of $121.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.63%.

Insider Activity

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172 in the last three months. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. UMB Bank n.a. boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 11.8% during the 2nd 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 last quarter. Aviso Wealth Management lifted its position in NetApp by 1.4% in the second quarter. Aviso Wealth Management now owns 6,149 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $792,000 after buying an additional 83 shares during the last quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC lifted its position in NetApp by 4.3% in the second quarter. Waldron Private Wealth LLC now owns 2,255 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $290,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Quarry LP lifted its position in NetApp by 11.7% in the second quarter. Quarry LP now owns 876 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $113,000 after buying an additional 92 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elo Mutual Pension Insurance Co lifted its position 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 last quarter. 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.