NetApp Inc

Nutanix reported fourth quarter and fiscal 2026 financial results, with annual recurring revenue growing 16% year-over-year to $2.55 billion and strong free cash flow generation. For the fourth quarter, revenue rose 16% to $757.1 million, GAAP operating income was $70.0 million, and non-GAAP operating income was $198.0 million, with free cash flow of $277.6 million. For the full fiscal year, revenue increased 12% to $2.85 billion, GAAP operating income was $274.0 million, non-GAAP operating income was $675.4 million, and free cash flow reached $840.7 million. The company added over 3,000 new customers during the year and signed new or enhanced agreements with AMD, Lenovo, NetApp, and NVIDIA. Looking ahead, Nutanix guides first quarter fiscal 2027 revenue between $755 million and $765 million, and fiscal 2027 revenue between $3.180 billion and $3.230 billion, with non-GAAP operating margin of 24% to 25% and free cash flow of $850 million to $950 million.

Super Micro Computer shares are rising 6% to $40 midday Thursday, extending a rally that began after Tuesday afternoon's fiscal Q4 report. Peer AI server names are climbing alongside it, with Dell Technologies stock up 3% to $498 and Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares gaining 3% to $60.50. The continuation is driven by external read-across, not a fresh Super Micro catalyst, after Hong Kong-listed Lenovo reported April-June revenue up 43% year over year to $26.94 billion and an AI server pipeline swelling to $54 billion, up 157% sequentially. Morgan Stanley upgraded its U.S. IT hardware industry view to In-Line from Cautious, while Goldman Sachs named Dell, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, and NetApp its top U.S. hardware picks. Super Micro's fiscal Q4 revenue of $11.12 billion was up 93.2% year over year, with adjusted EPS of $1.70 versus $1.59 expected, and the company guided full-year fiscal 2027 revenue to $65 billion to $72 billion versus roughly $53.3 billion expected.

Several stocks made significant midday moves on Monday. MarineMax soared 46% after agreeing to be sold to Blackstone Infrastructure's Safe Harbor Marinas for $53 a share in cash, or $1.5 billion, with the deal expected to close by the end of 2026. Varex Imaging climbed 48% after Teledyne Technologies agreed to buy the imaging component maker for $18.90 a share in cash, a deal expected to close in early 2027. Sionna Therapeutics collapsed 92% after its cystic fibrosis drug failed to meet key endpoints in a proof-of-concept trial, and the company said it would not advance the drug. Other notable movers included NetApp, which gained 6% after Morgan Stanley upgraded it to equal weight from underweight, and Verisk Analytics, which tumbled more than 5% after a Delaware judge ruled it must proceed with a $2.35 billion acquisition of AccuLynx. Apple dipped 2% after Jefferies downgraded the stock to underperform from hold, citing canceled plans for an all-glass iPhone. Intel fell nearly 3% after announcing a $15 billion common stock offering for general corporate purposes.

Morgan Stanley has upgraded its U.S. IT hardware industry view to In-Line from Cautious, citing accelerating infrastructure demand driven by memory chipflation. Analyst Erik Woodring said enterprises increasingly see chipflation as a multi-year structural headwind and are accelerating purchases of PCs, servers, and storage to lock in favorable prices, a dynamic he called Fear of Missing Procurement. The firm upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Pure Storage to Overweight and NetApp to Equal-weight, while downgrading Teradata. Morgan Stanley now prefers storage over servers over PCs and raised estimates across its OEM universe, sitting 9% to 12% above consensus on 2026 and 2027 EPS. However, the firm stressed the tailwinds are primarily cyclical and warned that hardware stocks, up over 100% since the start of 2025, trade at historically expensive levels, with the cycle potentially rolling over beginning in 2027.

NetApp has acquired DataPelago, a startup specializing in AI data infrastructure, to expand its intelligent data portfolio with GPU-accelerated processing at the storage layer. The deal brings DataPelago's Nucleus engine, which enables zero-copy activation of enterprise data by performing accelerated computing directly where data resides, potentially delivering up to 10x faster processing and up to 80% infrastructure cost reductions. The acquisition strengthens NetApp's position in the competitive AI infrastructure market, where rivals like Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Teradata are also expanding through acquisitions. NetApp shares have gained 5% in the past month, outperforming the computer-storage devices industry's 19.1% decline, and the Zacks Consensus Estimate for fiscal 2027 earnings has been revised upward over the past 60 days. NetApp currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold).

Shares of hardware and infrastructure companies Everpure and NetApp rose sharply after IBM issued a revenue warning that indicated enterprise IT budgets are pivoting toward server and memory purchases. IBM pre-announced adjusted earnings of $2.93 per share on $17.2 billion in revenue, missing Wall Street estimates, with CEO Arvind Krishna attributing the shortfall to clients suddenly reallocating capital expenditure toward servers, storage, and memory in late June. The news sent Dell Technologies and Hewlett Packard Enterprise higher, while IBM dropped, highlighting a divergence between hardware vendors and traditional software or consulting providers. Everpure jumped 3.8% and NetApp surged 6.4% as analysts at Morgan Stanley noted the dynamic suggests strong enterprise demand for physical infrastructure driven by hardware refresh cycles and AI-related compute shortages. However, the surge may partly reflect short-term panic-buying ahead of expected price increases, and the durability of the trend will depend on sustained backlog growth in upcoming quarterly reports from Dell and HPE.

NetApp has been confirmed as Presenting Partner for the 2026 NFL Madrid and London Games, reinforcing its role as the league's Official Intelligent Data Infrastructure Partner. The company's share price stands at $165.78, with a 90-day return of 66.66% and a one-year total shareholder return of 57.67%. NetApp has also been added to several Russell 1000 defensive indexes. A popular valuation narrative suggests a fair value of $171.75, implying the stock is about 3.5% undervalued. This view is supported by substantial growth in Keystone Storage-as-a-Service, up roughly 80% year-over-year, and a 9% year-over-year increase in deferred revenue, indicating a shift toward subscription-based and as-a-service storage.

CGI and NetApp have deepened their global alliance to modernize IT infrastructure and improve data management. Under the partnership, NetApp Keystone will power CGI's block storage solutions within its shared service platform, offering a subscription-based service that adapts to changing business needs and helps customers accelerate critical block workloads. The storage solution includes built-in security with real-time threat detection, protection, and recovery. The companies also plan to advance artificial intelligence across private, public, and hybrid cloud environments, aiming to help clients build an intelligent data infrastructure supported by scalable storage capabilities.

StockStory identified two cash-producing stocks with exciting potential and one facing headwinds. SentinelOne, with a trailing 12-month free cash flow margin of 3.5%, is noted for its 22.8% annual recurring revenue growth and estimated 19.4% revenue growth over the next 12 months. NetApp, with a 27% free cash flow margin, has seen billings growth averaging 7.3% over two years and annual earnings per share growth of 15% driven by share buybacks. Carnival, with an 11.7% free cash flow margin, is flagged as risky due to disappointing passenger cruise days indicating weak demand and a low return on invested capital of 1.4%.

The 20 IT services and other tech stocks tracked in this roundup reported a strong first quarter, with aggregate revenues beating analysts' consensus estimates by 6.8% and next-quarter revenue guidance coming in 5.6% above expectations. Cisco posted revenue of $15.84 billion, up 12% year-on-year and exceeding estimates by 1.9%, while Applied Digital delivered the biggest beat among peers with revenue of $126.6 million, up 139% year-on-year and surpassing expectations by 67.3%. IonQ recorded the fastest revenue growth, with revenue of $64.67 million, up 755% year-on-year and beating estimates by 30%. NetApp reported revenue of $1.95 billion, up 12.5% year-on-year and beating estimates by 4.1%. Everforth was the weakest performer, with flat revenue of $968.3 million and next-quarter guidance that missed expectations, sending its stock down 57.8% since the results.

NetApp released StorageGRID 12.1 with a federated global namespace for AI workloads and announced that CGI Inc. will use NetApp Keystone for block storage solutions. The updates reinforce NetApp's AI and subscription narratives but do not fundamentally change near-term catalysts around converting AI wins into scaled deployments. The CGI Keystone expansion ties subscription-based storage to real-world AI modernization projects across hybrid clouds, which could grow higher-margin cloud revenue while also weighing on near-term cash flows if the mix shift accelerates. NetApp's narrative projects $8.3 billion in revenue and $1.7 billion in earnings by 2029, with a fair value estimate of $171.75 per share.

NetApp has released StorageGRID 12.1, introducing federated global namespaces and higher throughput to support large-scale, distributed AI operations, and expanded its global alliance with CGI to deliver intelligent data infrastructure across hybrid cloud environments. The update targets enterprises managing growing volumes of unstructured data across regions and platforms, while the broadened CGI relationship connects NetApp's storage stack with wider digital transformation and managed services projects. These developments position NetApp as a supplier of building blocks for AI training, inferencing, and data governance across private, public, and hybrid clouds.

CGI and NetApp have expanded their global alliance, with NetApp Keystone now powering CGI's block storage solutions within its shared services platform. The partnership combines NetApp's intelligent data infrastructure and scalable storage with CGI's expertise in digital transformation, cloud, AI, and managed services to help organizations modernize IT environments, improve data management, and advance AI initiatives across private, public, and hybrid clouds. NetApp Keystone provides a flexible subscription-based service for critical block workloads, offering industry-leading performance, intelligent data management, high availability, and built-in security with real-time threat detection. CGI will deliver services on behalf of NetApp, while NetApp will partner with CGI to deliver enterprise-grade data and storage services, enabling flexible, consumption-based solutions for joint clients across industries.

NetApp reported record all-flash revenue of $4.2 billion for fiscal 2026, an 11% year-over-year increase, driven by enterprise infrastructure modernization and expanding AI deployments. Fourth-quarter all-flash revenue reached $1.2 billion, up 18% from the prior-year quarter, with management citing broad adoption across public cloud, all-flash, and Keystone offerings. The company recorded approximately 500 AI and data preparation wins in the fourth quarter alone, bringing the fiscal 2026 total to more than 1,100, and introduced new AI-focused innovations including AFX and the AI Data Engine. NetApp guided fiscal 2027 revenue in the range of $7.325 billion to $7.575 billion and expects higher enterprise AI activity compared with fiscal 2026.