NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target Raised to $206.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective lifted by research analysts at Bank of America from $180.00 to $206.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has a “neutral” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Bank of America‘s price target would indicate a potential upside of 10.49% from the stock’s current price.

NTAP has been the topic of several other research reports. Wall Street Zen cut shares of NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, July 29th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on NetApp from $115.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on NetApp from $110.00 to $150.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Northland Securities upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $137.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, May 29th. Finally, Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $209.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, August 18th. Five equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and ten have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $184.08.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.58 during mid-day trading on Monday, reaching $186.44. The company had a trading volume of 539,199 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,676,281. The firm has a market cap of $36.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 29.31, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.84, a quick ratio of 1.39 and a current ratio of 1.44. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $175.90 and its 200 day simple moving average is $138.27. NetApp has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $209.06.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, May 28th. The data storage provider reported $2.03 EPS for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $2.27 by ($0.24). The firm had revenue of $1.95 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.87 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 18.43% and a return on equity of 117.23%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $1.93 EPS. On average, research analysts predict that NetApp will post 7.34 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 49,464 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 23rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $154.82, for a total value of $7,658,016.48. Following the transaction, the president directly owned 46,806 shares in the company, valued at approximately $7,246,504.92. This represents a 51.38% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 1,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, August 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $193.82, for a total value of $193,820.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president directly owned 30,297 shares in the company, valued at $5,872,164.54. The trade was a 3.20% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Over the last three months, insiders sold 55,072 shares of company stock worth $8,719,520. 0.36% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 38.3% in the first quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 759 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $67,000 after purchasing an additional 210 shares during the last quarter. Sivia Capital Partners LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter valued at about $315,000. Cerity Partners LLC boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 9.9% in the 2nd quarter. Cerity Partners LLC now owns 46,792 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $4,986,000 after buying an additional 4,232 shares in the last quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia grew its position in shares of NetApp by 7.3% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 24,301 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,589,000 after buying an additional 1,662 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NewEdge Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 12.7% during the 2nd quarter. NewEdge Advisors LLC now owns 20,161 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $2,148,000 after acquiring an additional 2,277 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc (NASDAQ: NTAP) is a data management and storage company that delivers hybrid cloud data services for applications and data. Founded in 1992 as Network Appliance and rebranded as NetApp in 2008, the company is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. NetApp’s offering focuses on enabling organizations to store, manage, protect and move data across on-premises environments and major public clouds.

The company’s product portfolio centers on the ONTAP data management software and a range of storage systems and services built around it.