Should NetApp Be Getting More Love for Its Q3 Earnings Report?

By Chris Lange Updated Jan 31, 12:36AM EST · Published Feb 14, 12:35PM EST

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Should NetApp Be Getting More Love for Its Q3 Earnings Report? — © Thinkstock

When NetApp Inc. (NASDAQ: NTAP | NTAP Price Prediction) released its third-quarter financial results before the markets opened on Thursday, the firm said that it had $1.20 in earnings per share (EPS) and $1.56 billion in revenue. Consensus estimates had called for $1.15 in EPS and $1.6 billion in revenue, and it the same period of last year NetApp said it had $0.99 in EPS and $1.52 billion in revenue.

During this past quarter, the company announced that its NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud Platform soon will be available in Europe to help even more customers handle the configuring and managing of their storage infrastructures.

At the same time, NetApp announced a few other strategic partnerships: VMware Validated Design for Private Cloud with NetApp HCI, NetApp Verified Architecture for VMware End-User Computing with NetApp HCI, and NVIDIA GPUs and NetApp Technical Report for Object Storage with NetApp HCI, just to name a few.

The next cash dividend of $0.40 per share to be paid on April 24, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on April 5.

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Looking ahead to the fiscal fourth quarter, NetApp expects to see EPS in the range of $1.22 to $1.28 and revenue between $1.59 billion and $1.69 billion. Consensus estimates call for $1.25 in EPS and $1.7 billion in revenue for the quarter.

CEO George Kurian commented:

Although I am disappointed that revenue came in at the low-end of our guidance range, we continue to demonstrate discipline in how we manage the business. We are playing into the big market transitions from a position of strength and are focused on execution to maximize our opportunity in an uncertain macroeconomic environment. Our flash, hybrid cloud infrastructure, and AI solutions are serving as pillars of customers’ new architectures and we are seeing adoption of our cloud offerings as part of our customers’ foundation for moving applications and data to the cloud. We have conviction in our strategy to drive long-term growth.

Shares of NetApp were last seen down about 6% at $63.34 on Thursday, in a 52-week range of $52.00 to $88.08. The consensus price target is $84.05.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.