Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) had its price objective trimmed by Citigroup from $135.00 to $110.00 in a research report sent to investors on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider's stock.

NTAP has been the subject of a number of other reports. Oppenheimer started coverage on shares of NetApp in a report on Wednesday, November 13th. They set a "market perform" rating for the company. Wells Fargo & Company decreased their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Susquehanna downgraded 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 report on Monday, February 10th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company's stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $129.07.

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NetApp Stock Performance

Shares of NASDAQ:NTAP traded up $1.91 during trading on Monday, hitting $93.77. The company's stock had a trading volume of 2,480,918 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,856,425. The company has a 50-day moving average of $117.43 and a 200-day moving average of $120.63. NetApp has a 12 month low of $91.16 and a 12 month high of $135.45. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. The firm has a market cap of $19.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.24, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.24.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.22%. NetApp's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 38.52%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O'callahan sold 452 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, February 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.75, for a total value of $54,579.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,553 shares in the company, valued at $1,395,024.75. This trade represents a 3.77 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This trade represents a 2.95 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter worth $306,440,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 14.5% in the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 7,024,456 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $815,402,000 after purchasing an additional 888,671 shares during the period. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. increased its stake in NetApp by 5,858.0% during the fourth quarter. Clark Capital Management Group Inc. now owns 895,435 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,942,000 after acquiring an additional 880,406 shares during the period. Boston Partners increased its stake in NetApp by 53.9% during the fourth quarter. Boston Partners now owns 2,083,189 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $241,867,000 after acquiring an additional 729,394 shares during the period. Finally, KBC Group NV increased its stake in NetApp by 276.9% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 891,033 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $103,431,000 after acquiring an additional 654,626 shares during the period. 92.17% 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, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID.