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

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) had its price objective trimmed by Citigroup from $135.00 to $110.00 in a report issued on Monday morning,Benzinga reports. The brokerage currently has a neutral rating on the data storage provider’s stock.

Several other equities analysts have also commented on NTAP. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $153.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on NetApp from $132.00 to $146.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, December 17th. Wells Fargo & Company dropped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $115.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday. StockNews.com downgraded NetApp from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen lowered their target price on NetApp from $160.00 to $130.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Twelve analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $130.40.

NetApp Stock Down 4.1 %

Shares of NTAP opened at $95.73 on Monday. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $119.41 and its 200 day moving average price is $121.54. NetApp has a 12-month low of $95.18 and a 12-month high of $135.45. 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 firm has a market cap of $19.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 17.60, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.23.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, April 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, April 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.52%.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 451 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, January 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $116.79, for a total transaction of $52,672.29. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 12,005 shares in the company, valued at $1,402,063.95. The trade was a 3.62 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the company’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 value of $2,529,780.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 27,099 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,116,114.01. This trade represents a 44.81 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 60,903 shares of company stock worth $7,260,341. 0.47% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Private Advisor Group LLC raised its stake in shares of NetApp by 25.4% in the 3rd quarter. Private Advisor Group LLC now owns 3,166 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $391,000 after acquiring an additional 642 shares during the period. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. increased its position in shares of NetApp by 6.8% during the third quarter. Pinnacle Associates Ltd. now owns 3,296 shares of the data storage provider’s stock worth $407,000 after acquiring an additional 209 shares during the last quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC boosted its holdings in NetApp by 25.9% in the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 796 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $98,000 after purchasing an additional 164 shares during the last quarter. Conning Inc. grew its stake in NetApp by 234.9% during the 3rd quarter. Conning Inc. now owns 6,081 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $751,000 after purchasing an additional 4,265 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in shares of NetApp by 111.0% in the 3rd quarter. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC now owns 12,673 shares of the data storage provider’s stock valued at $1,565,000 after purchasing an additional 6,666 shares in the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.