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

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

Several other equities analysts have also recently issued reports on NTAP. Northland Securities lifted their price objective on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Wedbush reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and set a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Bank of America upped their target price on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus upped their price objective on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $138.27.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of 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. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $122.90 and a 200 day moving average price of $124.04. NetApp has a 52 week low of $83.62 and a 52 week high of $135.45. The company has a market cap of $24.79 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.42, a PEG ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $1.23 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total value of $397,393.59. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 9,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total transaction of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This trade represents a 5.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 23,049 shares of company stock worth $2,807,851. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter worth $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter valued at $32,000. True Wealth Design LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 2,833.3% during the third quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $43,000 after acquiring an additional 340 shares during the period. Finally, Capital Performance Advisors LLP bought a new position in shares of NetApp during the third quarter worth about $44,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.