NETGEAR (NASDAQ:NTGR) Upgraded by Wall Street Zen to “Hold” Rating

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of NETGEAR (NASDAQ:NTGR) from a sell rating to a hold rating in a report released on Sunday,Wall Street Zen reports.

Separately, Weiss Ratings reaffirmed a “sell (d)” rating on shares of NETGEAR in a research report on Wednesday, June 24th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, one has assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.50.

NETGEAR Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTGR opened at $21.31 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $579.21 million, a price-to-earnings ratio of -22.91 and a beta of 1.17. NETGEAR has a 52-week low of $19.00 and a 52-week high of $36.86. The business’s 50 day moving average is $22.80 and its two-hundred day moving average is $23.37.

NETGEAR (NASDAQ:NTGR) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, August 6th. The communications equipment provider reported $0.16 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.01 by $0.15. NETGEAR had a negative return on equity of 2.79% and a negative net margin of 3.71%.The company had revenue of $168.56 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $157.80 million. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.06 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was down 1.2% compared to the same quarter last year. Analysts anticipate that NETGEAR will post -0.52 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Pramod Badjate sold 3,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, July 31st. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.88, for a total transaction of $71,640.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider directly owned 154,073 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,679,263.24. The trade was a 1.91% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The sale was made to cover tax withholding obligations related to the vesting of equity awards. Insiders own 3.10% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NETGEAR

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of NETGEAR in the 2nd quarter valued at $82,799,000. Windward Management LP acquired a new position in shares of NETGEAR during the fourth quarter worth $35,468,000. California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in NETGEAR by 4,825.7% in the second quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,339,986 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $31,289,000 after buying an additional 1,312,782 shares during the last quarter. Concentric Capital Strategies LP purchased a new position in NETGEAR in the fourth quarter valued at $7,020,000. Finally, Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its stake in NETGEAR by 87.6% in the third quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 548,911 shares of the communications equipment provider’s stock valued at $17,779,000 after buying an additional 256,266 shares in the last quarter. 82.97% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NETGEAR Company Profile

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.