NETGEAR (NASDAQ:NTGR) Cut to Strong Sell at Zacks Research

NETGEAR (NASDAQ:NTGR) was downgraded by equities researchers at Zacks Research from a “hold” rating to a “strong sell” rating in a research note issued on Monday,Zacks.com reports.

Other analysts have also recently issued research reports about the company. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “sell (d)” rating on shares of NETGEAR in a research report on Monday, December 29th. Wall Street Zen lowered shares of NETGEAR from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, January 17th. Raymond James Financial raised their price objective on shares of NETGEAR from $29.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, October 30th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus set a $36.00 target price on shares of NETGEAR in a research report on Thursday, February 5th. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.00.

NETGEAR Stock Down 0.5%

Shares of NASDAQ NTGR opened at $20.61 on Monday. The firm’s 50-day moving average price is $23.31 and its 200-day moving average price is $26.73. The company has a market cap of $585.32 million, a PE ratio of -33.24 and a beta of 1.15. NETGEAR has a 52-week low of $18.75 and a 52-week high of $36.86.

NETGEAR (NASDAQ:NTGR) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 4th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.26 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.05 by $0.21. NETGEAR had a negative net margin of 2.56% and a negative return on equity of 2.40%. The firm had revenue of $182.47 million during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $177.26 million. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned ($0.06) earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up .0% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that NETGEAR will post -1.84 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Pramod Badjate sold 3,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, February 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.97, for a total value of $62,910.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider directly owned 144,586 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,031,968.42. This represents a 2.03% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. 2.30% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NETGEAR

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTGR. Comerica Bank increased its stake in NETGEAR by 64.8% in the 3rd quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 1,091 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares during the last quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp increased its position in NETGEAR by 44.7% in the third quarter. Jones Financial Companies Lllp now owns 2,323 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $75,000 after purchasing an additional 718 shares during the last quarter. Bailard Inc. raised its stake in NETGEAR by 9.9% during the second quarter. Bailard Inc. now owns 10,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $291,000 after purchasing an additional 900 shares in the last quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC lifted its position in NETGEAR by 35.2% during the second quarter. Tower Research Capital LLC TRC now owns 3,475 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $101,000 after purchasing an additional 904 shares during the last quarter. Finally, FNY Investment Advisers LLC grew its stake in shares of NETGEAR by 50.0% in the 3rd quarter. FNY Investment Advisers LLC now owns 3,000 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock worth $97,000 after buying an additional 1,000 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 82.97% of the company’s stock.

About NETGEAR

NETGEAR, Inc (NASDAQ: NTGR) is a global provider of networking solutions for consumer, business and service provider markets. The company designs, develops and markets a comprehensive portfolio of products that enable high-speed connectivity, data storage and network security for homes, small to medium-sized businesses and large enterprises.

Its product lineup includes Wi-Fi routers, mesh networking systems, cable modems, mobile broadband gateways and Ethernet switches—offered in both managed and unmanaged configurations.