NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Shares Gap Down – What’s Next?

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday . The stock had previously closed at $119.68, but opened at $116.99. NetApp shares last traded at $116.57, with a volume of 114,185 shares trading hands.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have weighed in on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America lifted their price target on NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. Oppenheimer initiated coverage on NetApp in a report on Wednesday. They set a “market perform” rating on the stock. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $129.06.

NetApp Stock Down 0.7 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a current ratio of 0.96. The company has a market cap of $24.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.89, a P/E/G ratio of 4.49 and a beta of 1.24. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $121.11 and a 200 day moving average price of $121.72.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a return on equity of 121.41% and a net margin of 17.01%. The business had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company posted $0.84 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts expect that NetApp, Inc. will post 5.71 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Investors of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.63%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 705 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 10th. The shares were sold at an average price of $126.20, for a total value of $88,971.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,694 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,475,782.80. This represents a 5.69 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total value of $208,266.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 10,890 shares of company stock valued at $1,369,172. Corporate insiders own 0.47% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On NetApp

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Hollencrest Capital Management acquired a new position in shares of NetApp during the second quarter worth approximately $26,000. Northwest Investment Counselors LLC bought a new stake in NetApp in the third quarter valued at about $27,000. Redwood Wealth Management Group LLC acquired a new position in NetApp in the second quarter valued at about $32,000. New Covenant Trust Company N.A. bought a new position in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $28,000. Finally, Crewe Advisors LLC bought a new position in NetApp during the first quarter worth about $35,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 92.17% of the company’s stock.

NetApp Company Profile

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.