NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) PT Raised to $106.00 at Morgan Stanley

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price target boosted by investment analysts at Morgan Stanley from $92.00 to $106.00 in a note issued to investors on Thursday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has an “equal weight” rating on the data storage provider’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential downside of 8.36% from the company’s previous close.

NTAP has been the subject of several other research reports. TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of NetApp from $100.00 to $120.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $93.00 to $96.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their target price on NetApp from $87.00 to $95.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Argus raised NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $130.00 price target for the company in a research note on Monday, March 4th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 7th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $104.73.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $115.67 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $23.87 billion, a PE ratio of 26.29, a P/E/G ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $66.01 and a fifty-two week high of $116.01. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $105.28 and a 200 day simple moving average of $94.01. The company has a quick ratio of 1.11, a current ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 2.00.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The data storage provider reported $1.94 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.69 by $0.25. NetApp had a return on equity of 109.49% and a net margin of 15.21%. The firm had revenue of $1.61 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.59 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.02 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.16 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total transaction of $89,730.42. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $989,095.02. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $103.16, for a total transaction of $876,860.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 252,702 shares in the company, valued at $26,068,738.32. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 871 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, April 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $103.02, for a total value of $89,730.42. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 9,601 shares in the company, valued at $989,095.02. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders sold 40,371 shares of company stock worth $4,139,505. Corporate insiders own 0.37% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in NetApp by 14,650.0% during the fourth quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 295 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 293 shares in the last quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp during the 3rd quarter valued at about $27,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 58.7% in the fourth quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 311 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $27,000 after acquiring an additional 115 shares during the period. Rise Advisors LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the first quarter worth about $27,000. Finally, J.Safra Asset Management Corp lifted its stake in 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 during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

NetApp Company Profile

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.