NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Issues Q2 Earnings Guidance

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) updated its second quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided EPS guidance of $1.73-1.83 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS 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 FY25 guidance to $7.00-7.20 EPS.

NetApp Trading Down 0.9 %

NTAP traded down $1.21 on Wednesday, hitting $131.91. The company had a trading volume of 1,878,602 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,897,612. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $127.52 and its 200 day simple moving average is $112.89. NetApp has a 12-month low of $70.82 and a 12-month high of $135.01. The company has a market cap of $27.15 billion, a PE ratio of 28.69, a PEG ratio of 4.96 and a beta of 1.27. The company has a quick ratio of 1.15, a current ratio of 1.19 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.74.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 30th. The data storage provider reported $1.80 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.48 by $0.32. NetApp had a return on equity of 114.54% and a net margin of 15.73%. The business had revenue of $1.67 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.65 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.20 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.5% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that NetApp will post 5.47 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 24th. Shareholders of record on Friday, July 5th were given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date was Friday, July 5th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.58%. This is a boost from NetApp’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.50. NetApp’s payout ratio is currently 44.83%.

NetApp declared that its board has authorized a share buyback plan on Thursday, May 30th that authorizes the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the data storage provider to buy up to 4% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on NTAP shares. Bank of America lifted their price target on NetApp from $85.00 to $100.00 and gave the company an underperform rating in a research note on Wednesday, May 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on NetApp from $100.00 to $116.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Friday, May 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on NetApp from $120.00 to $130.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, August 15th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised NetApp from an underweight rating to a neutral rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $95.00 to $125.00 in a research report on Friday, May 31st. Finally, Argus upped their price objective on NetApp from $130.00 to $140.00 and gave the stock a buy rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. One investment 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 company presently has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $122.67.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other NetApp news, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the president now owns 64,789 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. In other NetApp news, CEO George Kurian sold 8,500 shares of the business’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 approximately $40,968,758.64. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 22,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 28th. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.46, for a total transaction of $2,848,120.00. Following the transaction, the president now owns 64,789 shares in the company, valued at approximately $8,387,583.94. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 41,786 shares of company stock worth $5,395,146. 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.