Analysts Push NetApp Estimates Higher

NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP) saw its share price jump from $28.85 at Wednesday’s close to an intraday high of $33.90 on Thursday after reporting earnings per share more than 27% higher than analysts were expecting.

Fiscal first quarter revenues came in below the year-ago quarter, but also beat expectations. The stock gained about 17.5% on Thursday and traded within 20 cents of its 52-week high at the noon hour on Friday.

Analysts have uniformly lifted the stock’s price targets and a few have also raised their ratings. The company has said it expects to post revenue growth by the fourth quarter of the current fiscal year (ending in April 2017) and guided current quarter revenue in a range of $1.27 to $1.42 billion and earnings per share to a range of $0.51 to $0.56, both ahead of existing estimates.

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Here’s how a number of analysts reacted to NetApp’s results:

• Barclays raised its price target from $23 to $25 with an Underweight rating.
• BMO lifted its price target to $31 and rates the stock a Market Perform.
• Credit Suisse rates the stock Neutral with a price target increase from $25 to $28.
• D.A. Davidson lifted its price target to $37 and has a Buy rating on the stock.
• Deutsche Bank raised its price target from $22 to $25 and rates the stock a Hold.
• FBN Securities raised its price target to $35 from $27 with a Sector Perform rating.
• Goldman Sachs lifted its price target from $23 to $26 and maintains a Sell rating.
• Jefferies rates the stock a Hold but raised its price target from $24 to $29.
• JMP raised its price target from $21 to $24.
• JPMorgan raised its price target from $17 to $31 and boosted its rating from Underweight to Neutral.
• Piper Jaffray raised its price target from $26 to $31 and rates the stock Neutral.
• RBC lifted its price target from $29 to $32 with a Sector Perform rating.
• Summit Redstone raised its price target from $20 to $30 and rates the shares a Sell.
• Susquehanna boosted its price target from $25 to $36 and switched its rating from Negative to Positive.
• UBS raised its price target from $20 to $21 and rates the stock a Sell.

As Friday’s noon hour drew to a close, NetApp stock traded up about 1.6%, at $34.44 in a 52-week range of $20.66 to $34.81. The consensus price target on the stock is $29.16 and probably does not include all these recent changes.

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