NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Releases Q2 Earnings Guidance

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) issued an update on its second quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.73-1.83 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.71. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.565-1.715 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.63 billion. NetApp also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 7.000-7.200 EPS.

NetApp Price Performance

Shares of NTAP stock opened at $119.20 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The company has a market cap of $24.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 25.69, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. NetApp has a twelve month low of $70.82 and a twelve month high of $135.01. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $127.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.33.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.24 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.09. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.84 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.47 EPS for the current fiscal year.

NetApp Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be given a $0.52 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 4th. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.74%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to purchase up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on NTAP shares. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Stifel Nicolaus raised their price objective on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Thursday. Morgan Stanley raised their price objective on NetApp from $106.00 to $127.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 12th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a positive rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday. Finally, Argus raised their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $127.67.

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $133.07, for a total value of $60,147.64. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares in the company, valued at approximately $40,968,758.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146. Company insiders own 0.37% 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.