Stock analysts at Jefferies Financial Group started coverage on shares of NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) in a note issued to investors on Monday, Benzinga reports. The brokerage set a “buy” rating and a $88.00 price target on the data storage provider’s stock. Jefferies Financial Group’s target price suggests a potential upside of 26.80{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} from the company’s previous close.
A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. The Goldman Sachs Group raised their target price on NetApp from $60.00 to $68.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 25th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price objective on NetApp from $85.00 to $90.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Monday, August 29th. OTR Global raised NetApp to a “positive” rating in a research note on Tuesday, July 26th. Raymond James lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $94.00 to $105.00 in a research note on Thursday, August 25th. Finally, Credit Suisse Group assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Tuesday, August 16th. They set an “outperform” rating and a $87.00 price objective for the company. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and ten have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $86.50.
NetApp Trading Up 2.9 {21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}
Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $69.40 on Monday. The company has a current ratio of 1.38, a quick ratio of 1.31 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.63. NetApp has a 12-month low of $60.56 and a 12-month high of $96.82. The business has a 50 day moving average of $67.69 and a two-hundred day moving average of $69.31. The company has a market capitalization of $15.09 billion, a PE ratio of 16.60, a PEG ratio of 1.77 and a beta of 1.21.
NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP – Get Rating) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 24th. The data storage provider reported $0.97 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.11. The firm had revenue of $1.59 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.55 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 14.71{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} and a return on equity of 128.71{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996}. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 9.2{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.99 EPS. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp will post 4.45 EPS for the current year.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 18,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $69.82, for a total value of $1,256,760.00. Following the completion of the sale, the president now directly owns 78,463 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $5,478,286.66. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.26{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.
Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp
Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Cyrus J. Lawrence LLC purchased a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $28,000. First Horizon Advisors Inc. lifted its holdings in NetApp by 237.1{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the second quarter. First Horizon Advisors Inc. now owns 482 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $31,000 after acquiring an additional 339 shares during the last quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in NetApp by 183.5{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the third quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 550 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $36,000 after acquiring an additional 356 shares during the period. Gradient Investments LLC increased its stake in NetApp by 57.3{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} during the third quarter. Gradient Investments LLC now owns 629 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 229 shares during the last quarter. Finally, CENTRAL TRUST Co raised its position in NetApp by 43.0{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} in the first quarter. CENTRAL TRUST Co now owns 552 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $46,000 after purchasing an additional 166 shares during the period. 88.45{21df340e03e388cc75c411746d1a214f72c176b221768b7ada42b4d751988996} of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.
About NetApp
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, NetApp ElementOS software, and NetApp SANtricity software; and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp FlexPod, NetApp E/EF series, NetApp StorageGRID, and NetApp SolidFire.
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