NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Issues Q3 Earnings Guidance

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) issued an update on its third quarter earnings guidance on Thursday morning. The company provided earnings per share (EPS) guidance of $1.85-1.95 for the period, compared to the consensus estimate of $1.85. The company issued revenue guidance of $1.61-1.76 billion, compared to the consensus revenue estimate of $1.68 billion. NetApp also updated its FY25 guidance to $7.20-7.40 EPS.

NetApp Trading Up 2.6 %

Shares of NTAP stock traded up $3.23 on Thursday, reaching $126.68. 4,096,012 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 1,822,661. The stock has a market capitalization of $25.94 billion, a PE ratio of 24.11, a P/E/G ratio of 3.13 and a beta of 1.24. The company has a current ratio of 0.96, a quick ratio of 0.91 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.34. NetApp has a 52 week low of $77.46 and a 52 week high of $135.01. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $121.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $122.36.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, November 21st. The data storage provider reported $1.87 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $1.78 by $0.09. The company had revenue of $1.66 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $1.65 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 17.01% and a return on equity of 121.41%. The firm’s revenue was up 6.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $1.23 earnings per share. As a group, analysts forecast that NetApp will post 5.71 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, October 23rd. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 4th were issued a dividend of $0.52 per share. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.64%. The ex-dividend date was Friday, October 4th. NetApp’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.63%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have weighed in on NTAP shares. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on NetApp from $138.00 to $140.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Wedbush restated a “neutral” rating and issued a $120.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a research note on Monday, August 26th. Loop Capital upgraded NetApp from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $121.00 to $150.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 3rd. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “positive” rating and set a $155.00 target price on shares of NetApp in a report on Monday, August 26th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on NetApp from $146.00 to $147.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, NetApp presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $129.06.

Insider Activity

In other news, CAO Lorenzo Daniel De sold 1,685 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, September 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $123.60, for a total transaction of $208,266.00. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Thomas Michael Nevens sold 3,333 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, November 18th. The shares were sold at an average price of $119.23, for a total transaction of $397,393.59. Following the completion of the transaction, the director now owns 9,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,106,096.71. This trade represents a 26.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 23,049 shares of company stock valued at $2,807,851 in the last 90 days. Insiders own 0.47% 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.