Head-To-Head Review: NetApp (NTAP) and Its Competitors

NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) is one of 81 public companies in the “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” industry, but how does it compare to its peers? We will compare NetApp to related companies based on the strength of its earnings, valuation, dividends, institutional ownership, profitability, risk and analyst recommendations.

Profitability

This table compares NetApp and its peers’ net margins, return on equity and return on assets.

	Net Margins	Return on Equity	Return on Assets
NetApp	18.43%	117.23%	13.09%
NetApp Competitors	-493.26%	-26.26%	4.45%

Earnings & Valuation

This table compares NetApp and its peers top-line revenue, earnings per share (EPS) and valuation.

	Gross Revenue	Net Income	Price/Earnings Ratio
NetApp	$6.92 billion	$1.28 billion	28.80
NetApp Competitors	$24.36 billion	$3.81 billion	5.55

NetApp’s peers have higher revenue and earnings than NetApp. NetApp is trading at a higher price-to-earnings ratio than its peers, indicating that it is currently more expensive than other companies in its industry.

Institutional and Insider Ownership

92.2% of NetApp shares are owned by institutional investors. Comparatively, 51.5% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are owned by institutional investors. 0.4% of NetApp shares are owned by insiders. Comparatively, 10.8% of shares of all “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies are owned by insiders. Strong institutional ownership is an indication that large money managers, hedge funds and endowments believe a company is poised for long-term growth.

Risk & Volatility

NetApp has a beta of 1.44, suggesting that its share price is 44% more volatile than the S&P 500. Comparatively, NetApp’s peers have a beta of 1.63, suggesting that their average share price is 63% more volatile than the S&P 500.

Dividends

NetApp pays an annual dividend of $2.08 per share and has a dividend yield of 1.1%. NetApp pays out 32.7% of its earnings in the form of a dividend. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies pay a dividend yield of 3.5% and pay out 41.6% of their earnings in the form of a dividend. NetApp has increased its dividend for 1 consecutive years.

Analyst Ratings

This is a summary of current ratings and target prices for NetApp and its peers, as reported by MarketBeat.com.

	Sell Ratings	Hold Ratings	Buy Ratings	Strong Buy Ratings	Rating Score
NetApp	0	10	5	0	2.33
NetApp Competitors	1065	4294	7582	361	2.54

NetApp presently has a consensus price target of $184.08, suggesting a potential upside of 0.50%. As a group, “Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals” companies have a potential upside of 25.71%. Given NetApp’s peers stronger consensus rating and higher possible upside, analysts clearly believe NetApp has less favorable growth aspects than its peers.

Summary

NetApp peers beat NetApp on 9 of the 15 factors compared.

NetApp Company Profile

NetApp, Inc. provides cloud-led and data-centric services to manage and share data on-premises, and private and public clouds worldwide. It operates in two segments, Hybrid Cloud and Public Could. The company offers intelligent data management software, such as NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Snapshot, NetApp SnapCenter Backup Management, NetApp SnapMirror Data Replication, NetApp SnapLock Data Compliance, and storage infrastructure solutions, including NetApp All-Flash FAS series, NetApp Fabric Attached Storage, NetApp E/EF series, and NetApp StorageGRID. In addition, it provides cloud storage and data services comprising NetApp Cloud Volumes ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, NetApp Cloud Volumes Service for Google Cloud, and cloud operations services, such as NetApp Cloud Insights, Spot by NetApp, and Instaclustr. Further, the company offers application-aware data management service under the NetApp Astra name; and professional and support services, such as strategic consulting, professional, managed, and support services. Additionally, it provides assessment, design, implementation, and migration services. The company serves the energy, financial service, government, technology, internet, life science, healthcare service, manufacturing, media, entertainment, animation, video postproduction, and markets through a direct sales force and an ecosystem of partners. NetApp, Inc. was incorporated in 1992 and is headquartered in San Jose, California.