Stifel Nicolaus Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target lifted by analysts at Stifel Nicolaus from $140.00 to $145.00 in a research note issued on Friday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “buy” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Stifel Nicolaus’ price objective points to a potential upside of 18.52% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also commented on NTAP. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday. Citigroup raised their target price on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 15th. Bank of America upped their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $121.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Friday. UBS Group raised their price objective on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays upped their target price on NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $134.00.

NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $122.34 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.87 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.59. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 22.49, a PEG ratio of 3.26 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a quick ratio of 0.91, a current ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp has a 52-week low of $77.56 and a 52-week high of $135.45.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.68% and a net margin of 17.78%. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $1.23 EPS. NetApp’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

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

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Hollencrest Capital Management bought a new position in NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at $27,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new stake in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $28,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at $32,000. Finally, True Wealth Design LLC grew its position in NetApp by 2,833.3% in the 3rd quarter. True Wealth Design LLC now owns 352 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 340 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

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.