NetApp’s (NTAP) “Neutral” Rating Reiterated at Wedbush

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP)‘s stock had its “neutral” rating reiterated by Wedbush in a report released on Friday,RTT News reports. They presently have a $110.00 price objective on the data storage provider’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $120.00. Wedbush’s price objective would indicate a potential upside of 10.93% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Northland Securities lifted their price target on NetApp from $108.00 to $120.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. TD Cowen dropped their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Bank of America raised shares of 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 research report on Wednesday, February 19th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, Susquehanna cut shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a report on Monday, February 10th. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $133.20.

NetApp Trading Down 16.1 %

NetApp stock traded down $19.06 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $99.16. 4,478,045 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 1,592,910. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp has a 52-week low of $88.49 and a 52-week high of $135.45. The firm has a market capitalization of $20.16 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 18.21, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $120.22 and its 200 day moving average price is $122.02.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, February 18th. The shares were 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 owns 266,765 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,755,705.60. This trade represents a 3.09 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total transaction of $54,579.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,024.75. The trade was a 3.77 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Norges Bank bought a new position in NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at about $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 5,858.0% during the 4th quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $103,942,000 after purchasing an additional 880,406 shares during the last quarter. Boston Partners lifted its stake in shares of NetApp by 53.9% in the 4th quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $241,867,000 after purchasing an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 276.9% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $103,431,000 after buying an additional 654,626 shares during the last quarter. 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.