RBC Capital Raises Price Target on NetApp (NTAP) Ahead of 1Q Results

RBC Capital reiterated a Sector Perform rating on NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP), and raised the price target to $29.00 (from $26.00), ahead of the company's 1Q earnings report. NTAP is scheduled to report results on Wednesday August 17 after market close. Results are expected to be largely in line with consensus ($1.26B/$0.36).

Analyst Amit Daryanan commented, "We think NTAP will report in line to slightly better results heading into the Jul-qtr print as concerns around Brexit headwinds have mostly been unsubstantiated among enterprise IT vendors reporting Jun-qtr results. We note several IT resellers have pointed towards an improving (or declining less) storage environment (CDW, AVT, etc.). Also, our sense is Public vertical spend (~12% of total sales) has been fairly robust and should sustain into the budget flush. Finally, we note peer EMC reported results that showed that the "less bad" scenario on storage product portfolio is starting to occur. Net/Net: We think NTAP should see declines starting to moderate on the product side driven by public vertical and continued shift from the base to ONTAP cluster model. Also, we see potential for better op-margins as NTAP takes out costs and optimizes their OPEX structure through the year. Maintain SP rating but raising target to $29 from $26 as we adjust our FTM EPS multiple from ~11-12x to ~12x based on general improvement in the Enterprise IT landscape."

For an analyst ratings summary and ratings history on NetApp click here. For more ratings news on NetApp click here.

Shares of NetApp closed at $28.45 yesterday.

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