NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Sets New 12-Month High - Still a Buy?

Key Points

• NetApp shares reached a new 52-week high of $209.28, supported by strong AI-related growth initiatives, including a planned managed storage service with Oracle and new infrastructure products targeting GPU-intensive workloads.
• The company reported a strong quarter, with EPS of $2.58 versus $2.12 expected and revenue of $2.02 billion versus $1.84 billion forecast; quarterly revenue rose 29.9% year over year.
• Valuation and sentiment are mixed: the stock trades above the consensus analyst target of $193.86, with an average rating of “Hold,” while insider selling—including recent CEO share sales—adds a potential near-term concern.

Shares of NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) reached a new 52-week high during trading on Tuesday. The stock traded as high as $209.28 and last traded at $209.0150, with a volume of 1316971 shares. The stock had previously closed at $204.41.

Key NetApp News

Here are the key news stories impacting NetApp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Oracle cloud partnership expands AI opportunity. NetApp and Oracle plan to launch a fully managed storage service that will make NetApp ONTAP capabilities available natively to Oracle Cloud Infrastructure customers. The offering is designed for demanding AI and enterprise workloads, potentially increasing NetApp’s recurring cloud revenue and distribution. NetApp and Oracle cloud storage announcement
• Positive Sentiment: New AI infrastructure products target rapidly expanding GPU demand. NetApp introduced Novus, an architecture designed for large AI factories and aggregate throughput of up to 100 terabytes per second, with the goal of keeping GPUs supplied with data and improving customer utilization. NetApp also announced jointly validated AI infrastructure solutions with Supermicro, combining Supermicro compute systems with NetApp storage and data management. NetApp Novus announcement NetApp and Supermicro collaboration
• Positive Sentiment: Broader ecosystem and product announcements reinforce the growth narrative. NetApp plans deeper integration with SAP Cloud Infrastructure, introduced new hybrid multi-cloud controls, and added zero-copy data activation features for agentic AI. These initiatives could help the company win enterprise workloads across on-premises, private-cloud and public-cloud environments. NetApp and SAP partnership
• Neutral Sentiment: Data-sovereignty offering may support European demand. NetApp Keystone Sovereign will give qualified European customers greater control over data location and support boundaries, a potentially meaningful feature for regulated industries, although the announcements did not provide financial targets. NetApp Keystone Sovereign announcement
• Negative Sentiment: CEO share sales and valuation create counterpoints. CEO George Kurian sold 37,000 shares for approximately $7.4 million, following additional sales earlier in September. While insider selling is not necessarily a business signal, it may weigh on sentiment. NetApp’s shares are also above the reported average analyst target of $193.86, increasing expectations for execution. NetApp CEO insider sale

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

NTAP has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. The Goldman Sachs Group restated a "buy" rating and set a $210.00 price target on shares of NetApp in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $173.00 to $191.00 and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Bank of America raised their target price on NetApp from $180.00 to $206.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a report on Monday, August 31st. Citigroup reduced their price target on NetApp from $209.00 to $190.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Susquehanna raised their price objective on NetApp from $185.00 to $195.00 and gave the company a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have given a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $193.86.

NetApp Stock Up 2.2%

The stock has a market cap of $41.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 29.47, a P/E/G ratio of 2.16 and a beta of 1.44. The company has a current ratio of 1.24, a quick ratio of 1.16 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.30. The firm's fifty day moving average is $188.77 and its 200 day moving average is $151.63.

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The data storage provider reported $2.58 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $2.12 by $0.46. The company had revenue of $2.02 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $1.84 billion. NetApp had a net margin of 19.18% and a return on equity of 119.13%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 29.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.15 earnings per share. NetApp has set its FY 2027 guidance at 9.730-10.030 EPS and its Q2 2027 guidance at 2.540-2.640 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that NetApp, Inc. will post 8.32 EPS for the current year.

NetApp Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a $0.52 dividend. This represents a $2.08 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 29.34%.

Insider Activity at NetApp

In related news, CEO George Kurian sold 40,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $191.42, for a total transaction of $7,656,800.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 318,537 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $60,974,352.54. The trade was a 11.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, President Cesar Cernuda sold 2,608 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, August 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $204.48, for a total transaction of $533,283.84. Following the transaction, the president owned 46,530 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $9,514,454.40. The trade was a 5.31% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 108,524 shares of company stock valued at $21,271,576. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. BlackRock Inc. bought a new stake in shares of NetApp in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $2,925,168,000. Primecap Management Co. CA bought a new stake in shares of NetApp during the second quarter valued at approximately $1,395,423,000. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of NetApp in the fourth quarter valued at $458,060,000. First Trust Advisors LP lifted its position in NetApp by 127.0% in the first quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 3,658,066 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $374,549,000 after purchasing an additional 2,046,912 shares during the period. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new stake in NetApp during the second quarter worth $258,093,000. Institutional investors own 92.17% of the company's stock.

About NetApp

NetApp, Inc develops intelligent data infrastructure and data management solutions for enterprises, service providers, and government organizations. The company helps customers store, manage, protect, and access data across on-premises environments, private clouds, public clouds, and hybrid multicloud infrastructures.

Its portfolio includes enterprise storage systems, all-flash arrays, cloud-connected storage, object storage, and data management software. NetApp's offerings include the ONTAP data management operating system, AFF and ASA storage systems, StorageGRID object storage, and BlueXP, a platform designed to help customers manage data and storage resources across multiple environments.

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