NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Now Rated “Moderate Buy” by Sell-Side Brokerages

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) has received a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the nineteen ratings firms that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat Ratings reports. Ten analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 12 month price target among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $213.20.

Several equities research analysts recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Northland Securities increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $171.00 to $187.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Barclays downgraded shares of NetApp from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $219.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Wednesday. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of NetApp from $200.00 to $250.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Tuesday, October 6th. Weiss Ratings upgraded shares of NetApp from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 8th. Finally, Wedbush increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd.

NetApp Stock Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $10.90 on Friday, hitting $203.80. 3,217,450 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 2,725,941. The company has a market capitalization of $40.03 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 28.74, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $201.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $163.26. NetApp has a 52-week low of $93.69 and a 52-week high of $240.87.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 business had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 119.13% and a net margin of 19.18%. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 29.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $1.15 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. Equities analysts expect that NetApp will post 8.32 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 owned 46,530 shares in the company, valued at approximately $9,514,454.40. This represents a 5.31% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total value of $1,159,547.40. Following the completion of the sale, the director owned 7,747 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,512,291.87. The trade was a 43.40% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold a total of 173,524 shares of company stock worth $35,018,126 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Roble Belko & Company Inc bought a new position in NetApp in the 1st quarter valued at $31,000. West Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp in the second quarter worth $37,000. Fortitude Family Office LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 56.9% during the third quarter. Fortitude Family Office LLC now owns 204 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $43,000 after purchasing an additional 74 shares during the last quarter. Bell Investment Advisors Inc bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth $55,000. Finally, Elevation Wealth Partners LLC lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 90.8% during the third quarter. Elevation Wealth Partners LLC now owns 292 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $61,000 after purchasing an additional 139 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other 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.