NetApp reported better-than-expected results and guidance, driving its shares to surge during Friday's U.S. trading session and earning positive ratings from multiple major Wall Street firms.
Long focused on enterprise-grade high-performance storage systems and data infrastructure platforms,$NetApp (NTAP.US)$$NetApp (NTAP.US)$ reported better-than-expected results and guidance, driving its shares to surge during Friday's U.S. trading session and earning positive commentary from multiple major Wall Street firms.
As of the time of writing,$NetApp (NTAP.US)$U.S. stocks surged more than 30% intraday, reaching $185.79, with a trading volume of $331 million.
Barclays analyst Tim Long stated that NetApp delivered “broad-based robust growth,” highlighting margin expansion and a strong 12% year-over-year revenue increase, with public cloud business up 11% and hybrid cloud business up 13%. In a note to clients, Long wrote: “The broad-based strength was primarily driven by increased overall enterprise spending and strong demand momentum stemming from customers’ migration toward AI applications and use cases, with higher average selling prices (ASPs) potentially providing additional support.” Long maintained an “Overweight” rating on NetApp and raised his price target from $134 to $199.
Wedbush analyst Matt Bryson was relatively more cautious, but he noted that$NetApp (NTAP.US)$the company’s guidance may be conservative, as there appears to be a “favorable pricing tailwind” that could boost revenue. Bryson stated: “Overall, we believe NetApp’s strong performance is largely reflected in the significant share price appreciation observed throughout the quarter. Although, given the company’s accelerated growth guidance—which, to remind you, may still understate NetApp’s actual potential—we are comfortable applying a mid-teens price-to-earnings multiple to value the stock, we still find it difficult to justify the higher valuation multiples required for a further upgrade in our rating.” Bryson maintained a “Neutral” rating on NetApp but raised his price target from $115 to $150.
Morgan Stanley analyst Eric Woodring stated that the earnings report represents a 'strong beat and raised guidance,' and he expects further upward revisions to market estimates. Although he noted that the stock is currently trading near historical highs, Woodring acknowledged that demand from the artificial intelligence sector is improving. He maintained an 'underweight' rating on NetApp but significantly raised his price target from $88 to $137.
Fully capitalizing on the 'storage supercycle'! NetApp’s earnings and guidance both significantly exceeded expectations.
$NetApp (NTAP.US)$Although not a memory chip manufacturer, the company is fully benefiting from the 'storage supercycle' driven by the global AI data center expansion boom through its enterprise storage systems, all-flash arrays, and cloud-based high-performance data storage services.
Data shows that the company reported fourth-quarter revenue for fiscal year 2026 of approximately $1.948 billion, up 12% year-over-year, significantly surpassing the market expectation of around $1.85 billion. Adjusted earnings per share reached a record $2.43, a substantial 11% increase year-over-year and well above the market expectation of approximately $2.27.
The strong earnings growth was primarily driven by accelerated expansion in the all-flash array business and public cloud high-performance storage services. Revenue from all-flash arrays rose 18% year-over-year to a record $1.22 billion, while public cloud revenue grew 11% year-over-year to $182 million. Meanwhile, billings—a key indicator of large-scale enterprise cloud orders from companies like Microsoft—reached $2.163 billion, marking the tenth consecutive quarter of significant growth; full-year billings totaled $7.206 billion.
Additionally,$NetApp (NTAP.US)$The company provided first-quarter and full-year fiscal 2027 guidance that both exceeded market expectations. It forecasts first-quarter revenue of $1.75 billion to $1.90 billion, with a midpoint of approximately $1.825 billion, significantly higher than the consensus analyst estimate of about $1.67 billion. Adjusted earnings per share for the first quarter are expected to range from $2.05 to $2.15, substantially above the average analyst expectation of approximately $1.84.
For fiscal year 2027, the company projects full-year revenue of $7.325 billion to $7.575 billion and adjusted earnings per share of $8.70 to $9.00, both above the consensus analyst estimates of $7.19 billion and $8.50, respectively.
$NetApp (NTAP.US)$Its business focus is clearly more oriented toward enterprise-grade flash/enterprise NAND-based high-performance data storage platforms rather than enterprise DRAM. More precisely, NetApp itself does not manufacture DRAM or NAND chips like a memory semiconductor foundry; its core products are enterprise storage systems and data infrastructure platforms. Its high-growth businesses primarily rely on all-flash arrays, NVMe storage, object storage, and cloud file storage, all of which use NAND flash as the foundational storage medium.
$Microsoft (MSFT.US)$It is one of NetApp’s hyperscale cloud partners/channel mega-customers. Azure NetApp Files is a first-party, fully managed enterprise file storage service on Microsoft Azure, underpinned by NetApp technology. NetApp’s official documentation explicitly states that Azure NetApp Files is a fully Microsoft-managed service powered by NetApp’s storage capabilities.
In addition to Microsoft Azure,$NetApp (NTAP.US)$its key cloud partners/major customer ecosystem also includes the other two hyperscale cloud giants—$Amazon (AMZN.US)$Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP on AWS, and$Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$Google Cloud NetApp Volumes on Google Cloud’s hyperscale platform. Major customers featured in NetApp’s official case studies also include$ASML Holding (ASML.US)$ASML Holding, St. Luke’s, Healius, Anaplan, and Proximus NXT, spanning diverse end-use scenarios such as semiconductor equipment, healthcare, enterprise software, telecommunications, and cloud migration.
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