NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have received an average rating of “Hold” from the seventeen brokerages that are covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and seven have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $123.07.

Several analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Bank of America upgraded NetApp from an “underperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $128.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna lowered shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $90.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their price target on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th.

NetApp Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $93.44 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $88.11 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $109.16. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. NetApp has a 1 year low of $71.84 and a 1 year high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $19.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.18, a PEG ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.40.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, April 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.23%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 19,696 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $90.15, for a total transaction of $1,775,594.40. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 11,928 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,075,309.20. This trade represents a 62.28 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, February 18th. The stock was sold at an average price of $119.04, for a total transaction of $1,011,840.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 266,765 shares in the company, valued at $31,755,705.60. The trade was a 3.09 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 37,676 shares of company stock valued at $3,586,451 in the last quarter. Insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 2.3% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,041,930 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,375,363,000 after purchasing an additional 597,956 shares in the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $815,402,000 after acquiring an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in NetApp by 20.4% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 3,123,228 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $362,544,000 after acquiring an additional 529,471 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 8.0% in the fourth quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $346,653,000 after purchasing an additional 220,393 shares during the period. Finally, Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Beutel Goodman & Co Ltd. now owns 2,887,795 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $335,215,000 after purchasing an additional 12,919 shares during the period. 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.