By Reuters | Updated: November 22, 2024
Nov 21 (Reuters) – NetApp (NTAP.O) raised its profit and revenue forecast for fiscal 2025 on Thursday, banking on strong demand for data storage services as clients upgrade their cloud infrastructure, sending the company’s shares up around 4% in extended trading.
Demand for high-capacity data storage has been surging as enterprises incorporate artificial intelligence into their cloud platforms to process large amounts of data, benefiting companies such as NetApp.
The company now expects its 2025 adjusted earnings per share to be between $7.20 and $7.40, compared with its prior range of $7 to $7.20.
It also raised its annual revenue forecast to between $6.54 billion and $6.74 billion, from $6.48 billion to $6.68 billion expected earlier.
NetApp’s data storage is embedded in some of the world’s biggest clouds, including Amazon Web Services (AMZN.O) Microsoft Azure (MSFT.O) and Google Cloud (GOOGL.O).
The company’s revenue for the second quarter came in at $1.66 billion, beating analysts’ estimate of $1.65 billion, according to data compiled by LSEG.
It reported net income per share of $1.42, compared with $1.10 a year ago.
The company’s performance was driven by a record-breaking quarter in all-flash storage and strong performance in cloud storage services, said CEO George Kurian.
Shares of NetApp have risen more than 40% so far this year, outperforming the S&P 500 (.SPX) index, in part helped by its announcement of a share buyback in May.
Company executives have also been aggressively pursuing acquisitions to grow and enhance its product portfolio.
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@ Thomson Reuters 2024
