NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Updates 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.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts recently commented on NTAP shares. Wedbush reaffirmed a neutral rating and issued a $120.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a research report on Monday. Bank of America raised their price objective on shares of NetApp from $105.00 to $110.00 and gave the stock an underperform rating in a report on Thursday. Argus increased their target price on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of NetApp from $121.00 to $134.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on NetApp from $120.00 to $135.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a report on Wednesday, June 12th. One 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 data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and a consensus price target of $127.53.

NetApp Stock Performance

NTAP stock traded down $7.25 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $124.66. The stock had a trading volume of 837,287 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,891,489. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.66 billion, a PE ratio of 26.71, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $127.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $113.33. NetApp has a fifty-two week low of $70.82 and a fifty-two week high of $135.01. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74, a current ratio of 1.19 and a quick ratio of 1.15.

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

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 4th will be issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.67%. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.83%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The shares were sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the sale, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 15th. The stock was sold at an average price of $130.36, for a total value of $1,108,060.00. Following the completion of the sale, 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 legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp 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 completion of the transaction, the president now directly owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock valued at $5,395,146 over the last 90 days. 0.37% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

About NetApp

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.