NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Updates 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 commented on the stock. Bank of America increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a report on Thursday. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $116.00 to $119.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday. Susquehanna reissued a positive rating and set a $155.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday. Wedbush reissued a neutral rating and set a $120.00 price objective on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, August 15th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, NetApp has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $127.67.

NetApp Price Performance

NASDAQ NTAP opened at $119.20 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a quick ratio of 1.15 and a current ratio of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $127.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $113.33. NetApp has a 52-week low of $70.82 and a 52-week high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $24.53 billion, a PE ratio of 25.69, a P/E/G ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The data storage provider reported $1.24 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.15 by $0.09. NetApp had a net margin of 15.73% and a return on equity of 114.54%. The firm had revenue of $1.54 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.53 billion. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.84 earnings per share. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 7.6% on a year-over-year basis. 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 paid 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 (DPR) is 44.83%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at NetApp

In other news, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the completion of the sale, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares in the company, valued at $1,458,565.15. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 15th. The shares were sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total transaction of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 314,274 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $40,968,758.64. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $127.33, for a total transaction of $424,518.22. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 11,455 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,458,565.15. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146 over the last three months. Corporate 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.