New York, May 28, 2026, 19:08 (EDT)
NetApp (NTAP) surged about 13% to near $161 in Thursday’s after-hours trade as the company topped Wall Street targets for its latest quarter. NetApp also issued a fiscal 2027 forecast that suggested higher demand from AI and cloud customers. The stock ended the regular session off 0.24% at $142.40.
The move is notable as the AI trade starts to stretch past chips and servers into the data layer, where companies handle the big files behind AI models. It also came as markets were firm — the S&P 500 gained 0.6% for a record finish, and the Nasdaq was up 0.9%, AP reported.
NetApp posted revenue of $1.95 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, a gain of 12% from the same period last year. Non-GAAP earnings per share came in at $2.43. These figures strip out certain costs and accounting items. Analysts had been looking for $2.27 a share and $1.87 billion in revenue, according to AlphaStreet before the results.
NetApp is looking for revenue of $7.325 billion to $7.575 billion in fiscal 2027, with adjusted earnings expected between $8.70 and $9.00 a share. For its July quarter, the company guided revenue in the range of $1.75 billion to $1.90 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.05 to $2.15.
NetApp CEO George Kurian is calling fiscal 2026 a “landmark year,” saying the rise of enterprise AI is moving the focus away from just sheer compute power. Now, Kurian said, the bigger challenge is working with unstructured data—files and other information outside normal databases. NetApp wants to win there.
All-flash array net revenue at the company hit a record $1.2 billion, up 18% in the quarter, as it moved more solid-state storage systems. Public Cloud revenue, which comes from storage services run through cloud platforms, rose 11% to $182 million.
NetApp’s revenue and earnings beat the top end of its guidance, CFO Wissam Jabre said. Jabre called out a multi-year deal with Google Cloud as a key lift for product revenue, and said cloud partnerships fed into this quarter’s strength.
Broader sentiment from AI infrastructure was in focus. Dell Technologies lifted its annual outlook Thursday, pointing to higher AI data-center demand. The company’s infrastructure segment covers storage, software, and servers. Melissa Otto, head of S&P Global Visible Alpha research, told Reuters that Dell was “better positioned than rivals” thanks to its scale and supplier ties during the memory squeeze. Reuters
But margin risks remain. Jabre said NetApp is dealing with “rising memory and component costs” by pushing on suppliers and tweaking prices. If customers push back on those hikes, or big tech buyers pull back, NetApp could see the same cost pressure eat into product margins and challenge its fiscal 2027 outlook.
Friday is the next test. The after-hours rally will meet regular-session trading and analysts will refresh their models on AI storage demand, Google Cloud impact, and margins.
