StockNews.com Begins Coverage on NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)

StockNews.com initiated coverage on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) in a research note released on Thursday morning. The firm issued a hold rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the stock. Credit Suisse Group downgraded shares of NetApp from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday, February 23rd. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $100.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of NetApp from an equal weight rating to an underweight rating and reduced their price target for the company from $66.00 to $58.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 13th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $74.00 to $70.00 in a report on Thursday, February 23rd. Finally, Cowen reduced their price target on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $80.00 and set an outperform rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 30th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have issued a hold rating and nine have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $76.25.

NetApp Stock Down 0.8 %

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $61.47 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $13.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.58, a PEG ratio of 1.65 and a beta of 1.19. NetApp has a one year low of $58.08 and a one year high of $90.20. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $65.33 and its 200-day moving average price is $66.08. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.17, a current ratio of 1.34 and a quick ratio of 1.29.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 22nd. The data storage provider reported $1.37 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.31 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $1.53 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.61 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.93% and a return on equity of 103.19%. The company’s revenue was down 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.20 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that NetApp will post 4.28 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 26th. Investors of record on Thursday, April 6th will be paid a dividend of $0.50 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, April 5th. This represents a $2.00 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.25%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 34.42%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total transaction of $1,081,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 44,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,774.61. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, March 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $60.09, for a total transaction of $1,081,620.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now owns 44,829 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,693,774.61. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 4,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $65.04, for a total transaction of $292,680.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 147,170 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $9,571,936.80. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 31,500 shares of company stock valued at $1,951,740. Company insiders own 0.26% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Ten Capital Wealth Advisors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. Fuller & Thaler Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 183.5% in the 3rd quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 550 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $36,000 after purchasing an additional 356 shares in the last quarter. Gradient Investments LLC raised its holdings in shares of NetApp by 57.3% in the 3rd quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 629 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 229 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at about $53,000. Institutional investors own 87.92% of the company’s stock.

About NetApp

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NetApp, Inc provides software, systems, and services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. The company offers cloud data services, including NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for AWS, NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, NetApp Cloud Sync, NetApp Cloud Secure, NetApp Cloud Tiering, NetApp SaaS Backup, NetApp Kubernetes Service, and NetApp Cloud Insights.