NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Upgraded to Buy at Loop Capital

Loop Capital upgraded shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Tuesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has $150.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock, up from their prior price target of $121.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on NTAP. Argus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment 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. According to MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $129.06.

NetApp Trading Down 2.3 %

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $114.18 on Tuesday. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $126.36 and its 200 day moving average is $114.66. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.50 billion, a PE ratio of 24.61, a P/E/G ratio of 4.88 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. NetApp’s revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. Research analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.63 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.82%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total value of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 28.7% in the 4th quarter. Atria Wealth Solutions Inc. now owns 3,431 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $302,000 after purchasing an additional 765 shares during the last quarter. Truist Financial Corp increased its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.9% during the 4th quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 24,527 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,162,000 after buying an additional 910 shares during the last quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp grew its position in NetApp by 804.5% in the fourth quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 36,236 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $3,195,000 after acquiring an additional 32,230 shares during the period. Savant Capital LLC increased its position in shares of NetApp by 7.5% during the 4th quarter. Savant Capital LLC now owns 3,037 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $268,000 after purchasing an additional 211 shares during the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 21.3% in the 4th quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. now owns 3,809 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $336,000 after acquiring an additional 668 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Company Profile

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.