NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Earns Market Perform Rating from Analysts at Oppenheimer

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

Other equities analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Susquehanna reissued a “positive” rating and issued a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, Citigroup increased their price target 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. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7 %

Shares of NetApp stock opened at $117.21 on Wednesday. NetApp has a twelve month low of $76.41 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The stock has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. The company has a fifty day moving average price of $121.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.96.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.77%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.63%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the 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 owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 10,890 shares of company stock worth $1,369,172. Company insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter worth about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp boosted its position in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during the 1st quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares in the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter worth approximately $28,000. 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.