NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) Stock Price Up 7.5% - Here's Why

Key Points

• NetApp shares rose 7.5% to about $231 after the company unveiled Novus, an AI-factory storage architecture, and announced expanded partnerships with Supermicro and Oracle to support enterprise and AI workloads.
• The latest quarter strongly beat expectations: revenue increased nearly 30% year over year to roughly $2.02 billion, while EPS reached $2.58 versus the $2.12 consensus. Management also raised fiscal 2027 revenue and adjusted EPS guidance.
• Despite bullish AI-related developments and analyst upgrades, the consensus rating remains Hold with a $194.86 price target, below the current share price; insider selling, including a planned 50,000-share sale by the CEO, adds a cautionary signal.

NetApp, Inc. (NASDAQ:NTAP - Get Free Report) shot up 7.5% during mid-day trading on Friday. The company traded as high as $230.67 and last traded at $231.0750. Approximately 2,321,259 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 13% from the average daily volume of 2,680,573 shares. The stock had previously closed at $215.05.

More NetApp News

Here are the key news stories impacting NetApp this week:

• Positive Sentiment: NetApp introduced Novus, an AI-factory storage architecture designed to deliver up to 100 terabytes per second of aggregate throughput and improve GPU utilization. The announcement strengthens the company’s positioning in large-scale AI workloads. NetApp introduces new architecture for AI factories
• Positive Sentiment: New collaborations with Supermicro and Oracle are broadening NetApp’s AI and cloud ecosystem. The planned Oracle Cloud Infrastructure-native managed storage service will use ONTAP capabilities to support enterprise and AI workloads, while the Supermicro relationship targets enterprise, neocloud and sovereign-AI deployments. NetApp AI infrastructure and cloud partnership expansion
• Positive Sentiment: NetApp’s latest quarter exceeded expectations, with revenue rising nearly 30% year over year to about $2.03 billion and EPS reaching $2.58 versus a $2.12 consensus estimate. Management also raised fiscal 2027 guidance to $7.975 billion–$8.225 billion in revenue and $9.73–$10.03 in non-GAAP EPS.
• Positive Sentiment: Bank of America raised its price target after the INSIGHT event, arguing that NetApp’s AI opportunity could support faster growth. Zacks also upgraded the stock to a Strong Buy, adding to bullish momentum. Bank of America raises NetApp target
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst opinions remain mixed, with a consensus “Hold” rating and several targets below the current market level, raising questions about near-term upside after the strong rally.
• Negative Sentiment: CEO George Kurian sold 50,000 shares for approximately $10.5 million in a disclosed, preplanned transaction. The sale reduces his ownership and follows additional insider selling, though its planned nature limits the bearish signal. NetApp CEO share sale

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently weighed in on NTAP. Zacks Research upgraded NetApp from a "hold" rating to a "strong-buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, September 9th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of NetApp from $160.00 to $171.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of NetApp from $199.00 to $219.00 and gave the company an "overweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of NetApp from $180.00 to $190.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, September 3rd. Finally, Wedbush upped their price target on NetApp from $150.00 to $170.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Thursday, September 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, six have issued a Buy rating and ten have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, NetApp presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $194.86.

NetApp Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $45.21 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 32.50, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.46. 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 stock's fifty day simple moving average is $191.52 and its 200-day simple moving average is $154.03.

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

NetApp Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 28th. Stockholders of record on Friday, October 9th will be given a dividend of $0.52 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, October 9th. This represents a $2.08 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 0.9%. NetApp's payout ratio is currently 29.34%.

Insider Transactions at NetApp

In related news, Director Thomas Nevens sold 5,940 shares of NetApp stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $195.21, for a total value of $1,159,547.40. Following the completion of the transaction, the director owned 7,747 shares in the company, valued at $1,512,291.87. The trade was a 43.40% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Elizabeth O'Callahan sold 1,000 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $184.74, for a total transaction of $184,740.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president owned 30,737 shares of the company's stock, valued at $5,678,353.38. This trade represents a 3.15% decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. Insiders have sold 158,524 shares of company stock valued at $31,769,076 over the last quarter. Insiders own 0.36% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of NetApp

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of NTAP. Private Client Services LLC purchased a new stake in NetApp during the third quarter worth approximately $662,000. Versant Capital Management Inc raised its holdings in NetApp by 46.1% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 2,111 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $443,000 after purchasing an additional 666 shares in the last quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of NetApp by 11.2% during the 2nd quarter. QRG Capital Management Inc. now owns 12,480 shares of the data storage provider's stock worth $1,931,000 after buying an additional 1,261 shares during the last quarter. Andra AP fonden boosted its holdings in shares of NetApp by 168.2% in the 2nd quarter. Andra AP fonden now owns 106,363 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $16,461,000 after buying an additional 66,711 shares in the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service grew its position in shares of NetApp by 145.1% in the 2nd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 539,405 shares of the data storage provider's stock valued at $83,478,000 after buying an additional 319,332 shares during the last quarter. 92.17% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.

This instant news alert was generated by narrative science technology and financial data from MarketBeat in order to provide readers with the fastest reporting and unbiased coverage. Please send any questions or comments about this story to contact@marketbeat.com.