NetApp, Inc. (NTAP) – What Are Investment Firms Saying About This Stock?

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) have been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen research firms that are currently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have assigned a buy recommendation and one has issued a strong buy recommendation on the company. The average twelve-month price objective among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $213.20.

A number of brokerages have recently commented on NTAP. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on shares of NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Evercore upgraded NetApp from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and set a $300.00 price target for the company in a report on Wednesday, October 7th. Argus set a $225.00 price objective on NetApp in a report on Friday, September 11th. Northland Securities lifted their target price on NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Weiss Ratings raised NetApp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th.

NetApp Trading Down 5.1%

NTAP traded down $10.90 on Friday, reaching $203.80. 3,217,450 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,725,941. NetApp has a one year low of $93.69 and a one year high of $240.87. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $201.97 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $163.26. The company has a market cap of $40.03 billion, a P/E ratio of 28.74, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a quick ratio of 1.16, a current ratio of 1.24 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.12 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $1.15 EPS. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that NetApp will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.0%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.34%.

Insider Activity

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Monday, August 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total value of $533,283.84. Following the completion of the sale, the president directly owned 46,530 shares in the company, valued at $9,514,454.40. The trade was a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total transaction of $1,159,547.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director directly owned 7,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,512,291.87. This trade represents a 43.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 173,524 shares of company stock valued at $35,018,126. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. USA Financial Formulas purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $985,000. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 4.4% during the third quarter. Hutchens & Kramer Investment Management Group LLC now owns 1,935 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $407,000 after buying an additional 82 shares during the period. Vontobel Holding Ltd. increased its holdings in NetApp by 11.9% during the third quarter. Vontobel Holding Ltd. now owns 48,140 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $10,113,000 after buying an additional 5,105 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC bought a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth approximately $265,000. Finally, Pension & Wealth Management Advisors Inc. bought a new position in NetApp in the third quarter worth approximately $519,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc develops intelligent data infrastructure and data management solutions for enterprises, service providers, and government organizations. The company helps customers store, manage, protect, and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid multicloud infrastructures.

Its portfolio includes enterprise storage systems, all-flash arrays, cloud-connected storage, object storage, and data management software. NetApp’s offerings include the ONTAP data management operating system, AFF and ASA storage systems, StorageGRID object storage, and BlueXP, a platform designed to help customers manage data and storage resources across multiple environments.