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NetApp to Release Q4 Earnings: Here's What Investors Should Expect
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Key Takeaways
NetApp expects Q4 EPS of $2.21-$2.31 and revenue of $1.795B-$1.945B ahead of May 28 release.
NTAP saw rising AI demand, cloud growth and strong large-deal activity support fourth-quarter trends.
NTAP faces margin pressure from higher NAND costs, revenue mix shifts and strong market competition.
NetApp, Inc. (NTAP - Free Report) is slated to release fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on May 28, after the closing bell.
The company expects non-GAAP earnings per share to be between $2.21 and $2.31 for the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is currently pegged at $2.27 per share, indicating 17.62% growth from the year-ago level.
Net sales are anticipated to be in the range of $1.795 billion to $1.945 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.86 billion, implying a 7.62% increase from the prior-year reported number.
NTAP’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 3.28%.
Key Factors to Note for NTAP’s Q4 Earnings
NetApp is gaining from accelerating enterprise AI adoption, rising demand for all-flash storage systems, strong cloud momentum and improving large-deal activity, which might have supported fiscal fourth-quarter performance. On the last earnings call, management indicated that several large transactions that had been developing for multiple quarters closed in the fiscal third quarter, while additional large deals are anticipated to close in the fiscal fourth quarter. The company is also benefiting from improving demand trends in Europe, a stabilizing U.S. public sector environment and continued enterprise investments in AI infrastructure, cyber resilience and cloud modernization initiatives.
AI remains a key growth driver for NetApp. During the fiscal third quarter, the company secured nearly 300 AI-related customer engagements, up significantly from roughly 100 a year earlier. Growth was driven by increased adoption across industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and the public sector. NetApp’s recently introduced AFX disaggregated storage platform and AI Data Engine are generating strong customer interest, particularly among enterprises and neocloud providers building AI-ready data environments. On the last earnings call, management highlighted that the AI Data Engine will become generally available in the fiscal fourth quarter, providing another catalyst for adoption.
The company is benefiting from continued strength in its cloud and subscription businesses. Public Cloud revenue, excluding the divested Spot business, increased 17% year over year in the fiscal third quarter, while Keystone storage-as-a-service revenue surged approximately 65%. Management expects continued cloud migrations, broader AI integration with hyperscalers and increasing customer preference for flexible consumption models to remain important growth tailwinds in the fiscal fourth quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Public Cloud segment revenues is pegged at $182 million for the fiscal fourth quarter.
The company expects non-GAAP gross margin to be in the range of 69.5-70.5% and non-GAAP operating margin in the band of 30.5% to 31.5% for the fiscal fourth quarter.
On the last earnings call, management highlighted that continued pressure from rising NAND and memory prices, which adversely impacted product gross margins, may persist for some time. The company also faced unfavorable revenue mix impacts and higher open-market component purchases due to unexpectedly strong demand. While NetApp raised prices and is managing supply carefully, executives cautioned that the memory inflation environment remains dynamic and could continue to pressure margins going forward. Stiff competition from other data management and cloud storage providers remains a significant risk.
Recent Developments
On May 12, 2026, NetApp introduced new data management capabilities optimized for Red Hat OpenShift to enhance backup, recovery, disaster recovery and scalability for virtualized environments across on-premises and cloud platforms. The updates include improved backup and recovery with Change Block Tracking, disaster recovery support for OpenShift Virtualization, Google Cloud support for OpenShift Virtualization with NetApp Volumes, and enhanced scalability for NetApp Trident.
On April 22, 2026, NetApp expanded its partnership with Google Cloud by adopting Gemini Enterprise internally to enhance product development, sales operations and AI-driven productivity.
On the same day, NetApp and Google Cloud announced new innovations aimed at simplifying enterprise AI adoption by enabling customers to use data directly in Google Cloud without moving or duplicating it. NetApp introduced the general availability of NetApp Data Migrator, a multi-cloud data migration service, while Google Cloud launched the Flex Unified Service Level for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, allowing file and block workloads to run from a single storage pool across all Google regions.
On March 24, 2026, NetApp and Commvault announced an alliance to deliver an integrated enterprise data protection and cyber resilience solution across on-premises and cloud environments.
On the same day, NetApp partnered with Elastio to strengthen enterprise cyber resilience through a layered defense approach that extends from primary storage to backup and recovery data. The collaboration focuses on addressing increasingly sophisticated ransomware threats that can infiltrate production systems undetected and persist within snapshots and backups.
On March 17, 2026, NetApp launched the next generation of its EF-Series storage systems, introducing the EF50 and EF80 to support highly performance-intensive workloads at scale. These new systems are designed to address rising demand from AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and transactional database environments, while catering to emerging use cases, such as sovereign AI clouds and AI-driven manufacturing.
On March 16, 2026, NetApp introduced enhancements to its enterprise data platform aimed at removing barriers to AI adoption, alongside support for the latest innovations from NVIDIA unveiled at GTC. The company also launched the NetApp AI Data Engine (AIDE), a secure and unified AI data platform co-developed with NVIDIA and aligned with the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design.
What Our Model Says About NTAP
Our proven model does not predict an earnings beat for NTAP this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy), or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. This is not the case here.
NTAP has an Earnings ESP of +1.76% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at present. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Stocks With Favorable Combination
Here are a few companies worth considering, as our model indicates that they possess the right combination to exceed earnings expectations in their upcoming releases:
Dell Technologies Inc. (DELL - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +3.79% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues and earnings is pegged at $35.46 billion and $3.04 per share, respectively. DELL is slated to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on May 28.
Salesforce, Inc. (CRM - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +1.40% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues and earnings is pegged at $11.1 billion and $3.12 per share, respectively. Salesforce is slated to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on May 27.
Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.35% and a Zacks Rank #3.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues and earnings is pegged at $1.89 billion and $2.84 per share, respectively. ADSK is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on May 28.
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NetApp to Release Q4 Earnings: Here's What Investors Should Expect
Key Takeaways
NetApp, Inc. (NTAP - Free Report) is slated to release fourth-quarter fiscal 2026 earnings on May 28, after the closing bell.
The company expects non-GAAP earnings per share to be between $2.21 and $2.31 for the quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is currently pegged at $2.27 per share, indicating 17.62% growth from the year-ago level.
Net sales are anticipated to be in the range of $1.795 billion to $1.945 billion. The Zacks Consensus Estimate is pegged at $1.86 billion, implying a 7.62% increase from the prior-year reported number.
NTAP’s earnings beat estimates in each of the trailing four quarters, delivering an average surprise of 3.28%.
Key Factors to Note for NTAP’s Q4 Earnings
NetApp is gaining from accelerating enterprise AI adoption, rising demand for all-flash storage systems, strong cloud momentum and improving large-deal activity, which might have supported fiscal fourth-quarter performance. On the last earnings call, management indicated that several large transactions that had been developing for multiple quarters closed in the fiscal third quarter, while additional large deals are anticipated to close in the fiscal fourth quarter. The company is also benefiting from improving demand trends in Europe, a stabilizing U.S. public sector environment and continued enterprise investments in AI infrastructure, cyber resilience and cloud modernization initiatives.
AI remains a key growth driver for NetApp. During the fiscal third quarter, the company secured nearly 300 AI-related customer engagements, up significantly from roughly 100 a year earlier. Growth was driven by increased adoption across industries, including healthcare, manufacturing, financial services and the public sector. NetApp’s recently introduced AFX disaggregated storage platform and AI Data Engine are generating strong customer interest, particularly among enterprises and neocloud providers building AI-ready data environments. On the last earnings call, management highlighted that the AI Data Engine will become generally available in the fiscal fourth quarter, providing another catalyst for adoption.
The company is benefiting from continued strength in its cloud and subscription businesses. Public Cloud revenue, excluding the divested Spot business, increased 17% year over year in the fiscal third quarter, while Keystone storage-as-a-service revenue surged approximately 65%. Management expects continued cloud migrations, broader AI integration with hyperscalers and increasing customer preference for flexible consumption models to remain important growth tailwinds in the fiscal fourth quarter. The Zacks Consensus Estimate for the Public Cloud segment revenues is pegged at $182 million for the fiscal fourth quarter.
NetApp, Inc. Price and EPS Surprise
NetApp, Inc. price-eps-surprise | NetApp, Inc. Quote
The company expects non-GAAP gross margin to be in the range of 69.5-70.5% and non-GAAP operating margin in the band of 30.5% to 31.5% for the fiscal fourth quarter.
On the last earnings call, management highlighted that continued pressure from rising NAND and memory prices, which adversely impacted product gross margins, may persist for some time. The company also faced unfavorable revenue mix impacts and higher open-market component purchases due to unexpectedly strong demand. While NetApp raised prices and is managing supply carefully, executives cautioned that the memory inflation environment remains dynamic and could continue to pressure margins going forward. Stiff competition from other data management and cloud storage providers remains a significant risk.
Recent Developments
On May 12, 2026, NetApp introduced new data management capabilities optimized for Red Hat OpenShift to enhance backup, recovery, disaster recovery and scalability for virtualized environments across on-premises and cloud platforms. The updates include improved backup and recovery with Change Block Tracking, disaster recovery support for OpenShift Virtualization, Google Cloud support for OpenShift Virtualization with NetApp Volumes, and enhanced scalability for NetApp Trident.
On April 22, 2026, NetApp expanded its partnership with Google Cloud by adopting Gemini Enterprise internally to enhance product development, sales operations and AI-driven productivity.
On the same day, NetApp and Google Cloud announced new innovations aimed at simplifying enterprise AI adoption by enabling customers to use data directly in Google Cloud without moving or duplicating it. NetApp introduced the general availability of NetApp Data Migrator, a multi-cloud data migration service, while Google Cloud launched the Flex Unified Service Level for Google Cloud NetApp Volumes, allowing file and block workloads to run from a single storage pool across all Google regions.
On March 24, 2026, NetApp and Commvault announced an alliance to deliver an integrated enterprise data protection and cyber resilience solution across on-premises and cloud environments.
On the same day, NetApp partnered with Elastio to strengthen enterprise cyber resilience through a layered defense approach that extends from primary storage to backup and recovery data. The collaboration focuses on addressing increasingly sophisticated ransomware threats that can infiltrate production systems undetected and persist within snapshots and backups.
On March 17, 2026, NetApp launched the next generation of its EF-Series storage systems, introducing the EF50 and EF80 to support highly performance-intensive workloads at scale. These new systems are designed to address rising demand from AI, high-performance computing (HPC) and transactional database environments, while catering to emerging use cases, such as sovereign AI clouds and AI-driven manufacturing.
On March 16, 2026, NetApp introduced enhancements to its enterprise data platform aimed at removing barriers to AI adoption, alongside support for the latest innovations from NVIDIA unveiled at GTC. The company also launched the NetApp AI Data Engine (AIDE), a secure and unified AI data platform co-developed with NVIDIA and aligned with the NVIDIA AI Data Platform reference design.
What Our Model Says About NTAP
Our proven model does not predict an earnings beat for NTAP this time around. The combination of a positive Earnings ESP and a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy), 2 (Buy), or 3 (Hold) increases the odds of an earnings beat. This is not the case here.
NTAP has an Earnings ESP of +1.76% and a Zacks Rank #4 (Sell) at present. You can uncover the best stocks to buy or sell before they’re reported with our Earnings ESP Filter.
Stocks With Favorable Combination
Here are a few companies worth considering, as our model indicates that they possess the right combination to exceed earnings expectations in their upcoming releases:
Dell Technologies Inc. (DELL - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +3.79% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present. You can see the complete list of today’s Zacks #1 Rank stocks here.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues and earnings is pegged at $35.46 billion and $3.04 per share, respectively. DELL is slated to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on May 28.
Salesforce, Inc. (CRM - Free Report) has an Earnings ESP of +1.40% and a Zacks Rank #2 at present.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues and earnings is pegged at $11.1 billion and $3.12 per share, respectively. Salesforce is slated to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on May 27.
Autodesk, Inc. (ADSK - Free Report) currently has an Earnings ESP of +0.35% and a Zacks Rank #3.
The Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenues and earnings is pegged at $1.89 billion and $2.84 per share, respectively. ADSK is scheduled to report first-quarter fiscal 2027 results on May 28.