Wells Fargo & Company Cuts NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Price Target to $115.00

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Free Report) had its target price decreased by Wells Fargo & Company from $130.00 to $115.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. Wells Fargo & Company currently has an equal weight rating on the data storage provider's stock.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on NetApp from $140.00 to $145.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, November 22nd. Susquehanna downgraded shares of NetApp from a "positive" rating to a "neutral" rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $155.00 to $130.00 in a research note on Monday, February 10th. Wedbush restated a "neutral" rating and set a $110.00 price objective (down previously from $120.00) on shares of NetApp in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Tuesday, December 17th. Finally, TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a "buy" rating for the company in a research report on Friday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $130.40.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NASDAQ NTAP traded down $4.08 on Friday, hitting $95.73. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,429,399 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,781,472. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39, a current ratio of 0.91 and a quick ratio of 0.84. NetApp has a 12-month low of $95.18 and a 12-month high of $135.45. The stock has a 50 day moving average of $119.41 and a 200-day moving average of $121.54. The company has a market capitalization of $19.46 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 17.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be paid a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, April 4th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.17%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 38.52%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares in the company, valued at $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CFO Michael J. Berry sold 12,500 shares of the stock in a transaction on Tuesday, February 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $120.74, for a total value of $1,509,250.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 123,243 shares in the company, valued at $14,880,359.82. This represents a 9.21 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC increased its stake in shares of NetApp by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. Resonant Capital Advisors LLC now owns 4,442 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $516,000 after purchasing an additional 80 shares during the period. Larson Financial Group LLC grew its holdings in NetApp by 2.5% in the 4th quarter. Larson Financial Group LLC now owns 3,778 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $438,000 after buying an additional 92 shares in the last quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. increased its position in NetApp by 22.3% in the 4th quarter. Geneos Wealth Management Inc. now owns 549 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $64,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. Moors & Cabot Inc. raised its stake in NetApp by 3.6% during the 4th quarter. Moors & Cabot Inc. now owns 2,906 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $337,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC boosted its position in NetApp by 50.0% during the 4th quarter. Coppell Advisory Solutions LLC now owns 300 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 100 shares during the period. 92.17% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.