NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Increased to $145.00 by Analysts at TD Cowen

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective boosted by TD Cowen from $135.00 to $145.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Benzinga reports. TD Cowen currently has a buy rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Barclays increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Stifel Nicolaus increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Evercore ISI increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the company an in-line rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wedbush increased their price target on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 28th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $117.81.

NetApp Stock Down 0.9 %

NetApp stock opened at $126.17 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $25.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 27.19, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 5.13 and a beta of 1.25. NetApp has a 1-year low of $70.82 and a 1-year high of $127.97. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $110.24 and a 200 day simple moving average of $98.72. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.48 by $0.32. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.49 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase program on Thursday, May 30th that allows the company to repurchase $1.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.65%. NetApp’s payout ratio is 43.10%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total value of $876,860.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 17,871 shares of company stock worth $1,828,830 in the last quarter. 0.37% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the 4th quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares during the period. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in NetApp by 58.7% in the 4th quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after buying an additional 115 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its holdings 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 during the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. 92.17% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

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.