2011 was not a great year for shareholders of NetApp (NTAP), Piper Jaffray’s Andrew Nowinski today observes, noting he 34% decline, one of the lowest returns of the year.
The vast relative outperformance by EMC (EMC), he notes — it’s only down 5% — is probably because EMC had so many new products this year. However, NTAP will probably reverse the phenomenon in 2012 with new products, including “ONTAP 8.1,” “FAST2240,” and “Engenio.”
“Looking ahead to 2012, we believe the setup for shares of NTAP looks very promising,” writes Nowinski, “and expect outperformance relative to EMC as well as the rest of the tech industry.”
Nowinski also writes the stock is near its trough multiple, at roughly 13 times calendar 2012′s projected $2.78 per share in profit.
Nowinski maintains an Overweight rating on NetApp shares and a $53 price target.
NTAP shares today are up 18 cents, or half a percent, at $36.69.
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