Bank of America Upgrades NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) to "Neutral"

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) was upgraded by investment analysts at Bank of America from an "underperform" rating to a "neutral" rating in a research report issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. The brokerage currently has a $128.00 price target on the data storage provider's stock, up from their prior price target of $121.00. Bank of America's target price would suggest a potential upside of 2.84% from the stock's previous close.

Several other equities research analysts also recently commented on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $135.00 to $140.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Oppenheimer assumed coverage on shares of NetApp in a research report on Wednesday, November 13th. They issued a "market perform" rating for the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from a "neutral" rating to an "overweight" rating and set a $160.00 price objective on the stock in a research note on Monday, December 16th. Citigroup upped their target price on shares of NetApp from $130.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, November 22nd. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $145.00 to $160.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, November 22nd. Eleven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $137.33.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP traded down $0.08 on Wednesday, hitting $124.47. 2,947,736 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,395,312. The company has a current ratio of 0.91, a quick ratio of 0.84 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.39. The company has a market cap of $25.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.88, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.23. NetApp has a 1-year low of $85.28 and a 1-year high of $135.45. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $120.07 and a two-hundred day moving average of $121.86.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $1.78 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.78% and a return on equity of 123.63%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $1.23 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts predict that NetApp will post 5.89 EPS for the current year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the company'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 transaction of $1,056,465.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 279,782 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,774,104.78. This represents a 2.95 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $114.99, for a total transaction of $2,529,780.00. Following the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $3,116,114.01. This represents a 44.81 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 60,903 shares of company stock valued at $7,260,341 in the last three months. Insiders own 0.47% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On NetApp

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in NTAP. Creative Planning grew its holdings in shares of NetApp by 8.7% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 26,001 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $3,211,000 after purchasing an additional 2,073 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. grew its holdings in NetApp by 139.9% in the 3rd quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 3,004 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $387,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 3.1% during the third quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 360,394 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $44,512,000 after acquiring an additional 10,731 shares during the last quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 3.5% during the third quarter. OLD National Bancorp IN now owns 3,492 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $431,000 after purchasing an additional 118 shares during the period. Finally, Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC increased its holdings in NetApp by 279.1% during the 3rd quarter. Allspring Global Investments Holdings LLC now owns 57,470 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $7,098,000 after purchasing an additional 42,312 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

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.