NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given New $132.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective upped by Morgan Stanley from $127.00 to $132.00 in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on NTAP. Northland Securities boosted their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $121.00 to $150.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Trading Down 3.4 %

NetApp stock opened at $122.34 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings 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. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $121.87 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $122.49. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 22nd. Investors of record on Friday, January 3rd will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, January 3rd. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.70%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 38.24%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $126.11, for a total transaction of $1,071,935.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 292,778 shares in the company, valued at $36,922,233.58. The trade was a 2.82 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC raised its holdings in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. 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.