NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Releases Q2 Earnings Guidance

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday. 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.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several research analysts have issued reports on NTAP shares. UBS Group boosted their target price on NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research report on Thursday. Wedbush reiterated a neutral rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Argus lifted their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 12th. Finally, Stifel Nicolaus lifted their price objective on shares of NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $127.67.

NetApp Trading Up 1.3 %

NASDAQ:NTAP opened at $120.72 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $24.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 26.02, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a current ratio of 1.19, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $127.51 and a 200-day simple moving average of $113.37. NetApp has a 12 month low of $70.82 and a 12 month high of $135.01.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.56 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.45 by $0.11. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The company had revenue of $1.54 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.84 EPS. NetApp’s revenue for the quarter was up 7.6% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that NetApp will post 5.47 earnings per share for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.72%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its board has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Thursday, May 30th that permits the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the data storage provider to repurchase up to 4% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In other NetApp 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 sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,581,670.02. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other NetApp news, EVP Elizabeth M. O’callahan sold 452 shares of the business’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 transaction of $60,147.64. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 11,886 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,581,670.02. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total value of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 in the last three months. 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.