Bank of America Increases NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target to $110.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its target price increased by analysts at Bank of America from $105.00 to $110.00 in a report released on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “underperform” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price objective indicates a potential downside of 8.88% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays raised their target price on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 31st. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Wedbush reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $138.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $127.67.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP opened at $120.72 on Thursday. NetApp has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The firm has a market capitalization of $24.84 billion, a PE ratio of 26.02, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $127.51 and its 200 day moving average price is $113.37.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.45 by $0.11. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth approximately $26,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 2nd quarter worth $32,000. J.Safra Asset Management Corp grew its stake in shares of NetApp by 706.3% during 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 in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC purchased a new position in NetApp in the first quarter valued at $27,000. Finally, New Covenant Trust Company N.A. acquired a new stake in NetApp in the first quarter valued at $28,000. 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.