NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $127.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective increased by Morgan Stanley from $106.00 to $127.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

NTAP has been the topic of several other research reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upgraded shares of NetApp from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and raised their target price for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a report on Friday, May 31st. Evercore ISI raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $95.00 to $105.00 and gave the stock an in-line rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of NetApp from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Thursday, March 7th. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $110.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 21st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $117.81.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP opened at $126.17 on Wednesday. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $127.97. The company has a 50 day simple moving average of $110.24 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $98.72. The company has a market capitalization of $25.97 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 27.19, a P/E/G ratio of 5.13 and a beta of 1.25. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted 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. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.67 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $1.20 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.49 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Investors of record on Friday, July 5th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.65%. This is an increase from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 43.10%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in NTAP. ORG Partners LLC raised its stake in NetApp by 14,650.0% in the fourth 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 last quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 115 shares during the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $27,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 706.3% in the first quarter. J.Safra Asset Management Corp now owns 258 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 226 shares during the last quarter. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. purchased a new position in shares of NetApp in the first quarter worth about $28,000. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.