StockNews.com Upgrades NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) to Buy

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) was upgraded by StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a note issued to investors on Wednesday.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on NTAP. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a “positive” rating to a “neutral” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research report on Monday, February 10th. Wedbush reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $119.00 to $132.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised shares of NetApp from a “neutral” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $160.00 price objective for the company in a research report on Monday, December 16th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $137.53.

NetApp Stock Up 1.2 %

NetApp stock opened at $120.52 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $24.50 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.15, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.94 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a 1-year low of $83.80 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $120.02 and a 200 day simple moving average of $121.81. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business had revenue of $1.66 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.65 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.89 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 16th. The shares were sold at an average price of $124.29, for a total value of $1,056,465.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. The trade was a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 52,403 shares of company stock worth $6,248,501 in the last quarter. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Vise Technologies Inc. acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $249,000. Focus Partners Advisor Solutions LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $251,000. PharVision Advisers LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $403,000. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 2,986,330 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $346,653,000 after buying an additional 220,393 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Voloridge Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $3,336,000. 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.