NetApp Reports Second Quarter Fiscal Year 2017 Results

• All flash array annualized net revenue run rate exceeded $1 billion
  
• Over 200 petabytes of flash shipped
• Clustered Data ONTAP™ deployed on 86% of systems shipped
• $169 million returned to shareholders in share repurchases and cash dividends

SUNNYVALE, Calif., Nov. 16, 2016 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- NetApp (NASDAQ:NTAP) today reported financial results for the second quarter fiscal year 2017, ended October 28, 2016.

Second Quarter Financial Results
Net revenues for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017 were $1.34 billion. GAAP net income for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017 was $109 million, or $0.38 per share,¹ compared to GAAP net income of $114 million, or $0.39 per share, for the comparable period of the prior year. Non-GAAP net income for the second quarter of fiscal year 2017 was $169 million, or $0.60 per share,² compared to non-GAAP net income of $181 million, or $0.61 per share, for the comparable period of the prior year.

Cash, Cash Equivalents and Investments
NetApp ended the second quarter of fiscal year 2017 with $4.4 billion in total cash, cash equivalents and investments. During the second quarter of fiscal year 2017, the Company generated $158 million in cash from operations and returned $169 million to shareholders through share repurchases and a cash dividend.

The Company announced the next cash dividend of $0.19 per share. The quarterly dividend will be paid on January 25, 2017, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on January 6, 2017.

“Our second quarter results are evidence of our ability to maintain a high level of execution while streamlining the business and pivoting to the growth areas of the market,” said George Kurian, chief executive officer. “Our market-leading innovations in flash, next-generation data centers and hybrid cloud, coupled with a sharp focus on operational discipline, position NetApp to lead in the digital era.”

Q3 Fiscal Year 2017 Outlook
The Company provided the following financial guidance for the third quarter of fiscal year 2017:

• Net revenues are expected to be in the range of $1.325 billion to $1.475 billion.
• GAAP earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.41 to $0.46 per share.
• Non-GAAP earnings per share is expected to be in the range of $0.72 to $0.77 per share.

Business Highlights

• Increasing Flash Momentum
  • NetApp Recognized as a Leader in Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays. NetApp named a Leader in the 2016 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, based on the ability to execute and the completeness of vision. According to Gartner, Leaders execute well against their current vision and are well positioned for tomorrow.³
  • NetApp Takes Top Honors for Customer Implementation, Brand Leadership at Flash Memory Summit 2016. NetApp’s SolidFire™ deployment was recognized for customer innovation at Internet Solutions and NetApp swept all six brand leadership categories for all-flash NAS and unified SAN/NAS arrays in the 2016 Brand Leader Survey.
• Simplifying Data Management with New Solutions
  • New NetApp Software and Flash Systems Simplify Data Management. NetApp ONTAP software, flash systems and expanded public cloud support for Microsoft Azure provide the modern foundation to help customers maximize the value of data in the hybrid cloud.
  • NetApp Boosts Performance, Lowers Cost of Data Analytics Applications for Midsize Businesses, Remote Offices. NetApp SANtricity™ software and the entry-level E2800 all-flash array deliver affordable performance and simplify the process of extracting value from third platform data.
• Delivering Positive Customer Outcomes
  
  • UZ Leuven Speeds Collaboration of 17 Hospitals with NetApp Flash. This hospital network teams with NetApp to move, manage, and protect 6PB of critical patient data and was able to roll out new features across 17 hospitals within business hours with no downtime.
  • Inland Northwest Health Services/Engage Protects Critical Patient Data, Boosts Care with NetApp. NetApp helped the technology arm for this healthcare provider create a new cloud service based on AltaVault™ that allows it to easily and affordably secure critical customer data.
  • Buzinessware Fuels its On-demand Managed Infrastructure with NetApp SolidFire All-Flash Storage. Buzinessware, a Middle Eastern hosting and cloud service provider, teams with NetApp to deliver the exact level of performance required for each customer application and is able to make changes to performance and capacity on the fly without any disruption.
  • RapidScale Accelerates Enterprise Profitability with NetApp. NetApp’s All Flash FAS gives RapidScale, a cloud service provider, a solid foundation to support its 100% annual growth, helping to preserve profit margins through storage efficiency, administration, and time savings.
  • TechnologyOne Selects NetApp to Improve Profitability and Efficiency of Its SaaS Cloud Offering. NetApp enabled Australia’s largest enterprise software company to respond to changing customer needs by adopting a multi-cloud approach without increasing costs or complexity.

Webcast and Conference Call Information
NetApp will host a conference call to discuss these results today at 2:30 p.m. Pacific Time. To access the live webcast of this event, visit the NetApp Investor Relations website at investors.netapp.com. In addition, this press release, historical supplemental data tables, and other information related to the call will be posted on the Investor Relations website. An audio replay will also be available on the website after 4:30 p.m. Pacific Time today.

About NetApp
Leading organizations worldwide count on NetApp for software, systems and services to manage and store their data. Customers value our teamwork, expertise and passion for helping them succeed now and into the future. To learn more, visit www.netapp.com.

“Safe Harbor” Statement Under U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995
This press release contains forward-looking statements within the meaning of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These statements include, but are not limited to, all of the statements made under the Q3 Fiscal Year 2017 Outlook section and statements ­­made about our ability to maintain operational discipline and lead in the digital era. All of these forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty. Actual results may differ materially from these statements for a variety of reasons, including, without limitation, general global political, macroeconomic and market conditions, changes in U.S. government spending, revenue seasonality and matters specific to our business, such as our ability to understand, and effectively respond to changes affecting our market environment, product, technologies and customer requirements, including the impact of the cloud, customer demand for and acceptance of our products and services, our ability to reduce our cost structure, streamline the business and improve efficiency, our ability to effectively integrate the SolidFire acquisition, and our ability to manage our gross profit margins. These and other equally important factors are described in reports and documents we file from time to time with the Securities and Exchange Commission, including the factors described under the section titled “Risk Factors” in our most recently submitted Annual Report on Form 10-K. We disclaim any obligation to update information contained in this press release whether as a result of new information, future events, or otherwise.

NetApp and the NetApp logo and the marks listed at http://www.netapp.com/TM are trademarks of NetApp, Inc. Other company and product names may be trademarks of their respective owners.

¹ GAAP earnings per share is calculated using the diluted number of shares.
² Non-GAAP net income excludes, when applicable, (a) amortization of intangible assets, (b) stock-based compensation expenses, (c) acquisition-related expenses, (d) restructuring and other charges, (e) asset impairments, (f) gains/losses on the sale of properties, and (g) our GAAP tax provision, but includes a non-GAAP tax provision based upon our projected annual non-GAAP effective tax rate for the first three quarters of the fiscal year and an actual non-GAAP tax provision for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. NetApp makes additional adjustments to the non-GAAP tax provision for certain tax matters as described below. Non-GAAP earnings per share is calculated using the diluted number of shares for all periods presented. A detailed reconciliation of our non-GAAP to GAAP results can be found at http://investors.netapp.com. NetApp’s management uses these non-GAAP measures in making operating decisions because it believes the measurements provide meaningful supplemental information regarding NetApp’s ongoing operational performance.
³ Gartner Research Methodologies, Gartner Magic Quadrant, www.gartner.com/technology/research/methodologies/research_mq.jsp
Gartner, Magic Quadrant for Solid-State Arrays, Valdis Filks, Joseph Unsworth, Arun Chandrasekaran, 22 August 2016

NetApp Usage of Non-GAAP Financial Information
To supplement NetApp’s condensed consolidated financial statement information presented in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States (GAAP), NetApp provides investors with certain non-GAAP measures, including, but not limited to, historical non-GAAP operating results, non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP effective tax rate and free cash flow, and historical and projected non-GAAP earnings per diluted share.

NetApp believes that the presentation of non-GAAP net income, non-GAAP effective tax rates, and non-GAAP earnings per share data when shown in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures, provides useful information to investors and management regarding financial and business trends relating to its financial condition and results of operations. NetApp believes that the presentation of free cash flow, which it defines as the net cash provided by operating activities less cash used to acquire property and equipment, to be a liquidity measure that provides useful information to management and investors because it reflects cash that can be used to, among other things, invest in its business, make strategic acquisitions, repurchase common stock, and pay dividends on its common stock, after deducting capital expenditures. As free cash flow is not a measure of liquidity calculated in accordance with GAAP, free cash flow should be considered in addition to, but not as a substitute for, the analysis provided in the statement of cash flows.

NetApp’s management uses these non-GAAP measures in making operating decisions because it believes the measurements provide meaningful supplemental information regarding NetApp’s ongoing operational performance. These non-GAAP financial measures are used to: (1) measure company performance against historical results, (2) facilitate comparisons to our competitors’ operating results and (3) allow greater transparency with respect to information used by management in financial and operational decision making. In addition, these non-GAAP financial measures are used to measure company performance for the purposes of determining employee incentive plan compensation. 

NetApp excludes the following items from its non-GAAP measures when applicable:

A. Amortization of intangible assets. NetApp records amortization of intangible assets that were acquired in connection with its business combinations. The amortization of intangible assets varies depending on the level of acquisition activity. Management finds it useful to exclude these charges to assess the appropriate level of various operating expenses to assist in budgeting, planning and forecasting future periods and in measuring operational performance.

B. Stock-based compensation expenses. NetApp excludes stock-based compensation expenses from its non-GAAP measures primarily because they are non-cash expenses. While management views stock-based compensation as a key element of our employee retention and long-term incentives, we do not view it as an expense to be used in evaluating operational performance in any given period.

C. Acquisition-related expenses. NetApp excludes acquisition-related expenses, including (a) due diligence, legal and other one-time integration charges and (b) write down of assets acquired that NetApp does not intend to use in its ongoing business, from its non-GAAP measures, primarily because they are not related to our ongoing business or cost base and, therefore, cannot be relied upon for future planning and forecasting.

D. Restructuring and other charges. These charges include restructuring charges that are incurred based on the particular facts and circumstances of restructuring decisions, including employment and contractual settlement terms, and other related charges, and can vary in size and frequency. These items are not ordinarily included in our annual operating plan and related budget due to the unpredictability of the timing and size of these events. We therefore exclude them in our assessment of operational performance. 

E. Asset impairments. These are non-cash charges to write down assets when there is an indication that the asset has become impaired. Management finds it useful to exclude these non-cash charges due to the unpredictability of these events in its assessment of operational performance.

F. Gains/losses on the sale of properties. These are gains/losses from the sale of our properties. Management believes that these transactions do not reflect the results of our underlying, on-going business and, therefore, cannot be relied upon for future planning or forecasting.

G. Income tax adjustments. NetApp’s non-GAAP tax provision is based upon a projected annual non-GAAP effective tax rate for the first three quarters of the fiscal year and an actual non-GAAP tax provision for the fourth quarter of the fiscal year. The non-GAAP tax provision also excludes, when applicable, (a) tax charges or benefits in the current period that relate to one or more prior fiscal periods that are a result of events such as changes in tax legislation, authoritative guidance, income tax audit settlements and/or court decisions, (b) tax charges or benefits that are attributable to unusual or non-recurring book and/or tax accounting method changes, (c) tax charges that are a result of a non-routine foreign cash repatriation, (d) tax charges or benefits that are a result of infrequent restructuring of the Company’s tax structure, (e) tax charges or benefits that are a result of a change in valuation allowance, and (f) tax charges resulting from the integration of intellectual properties from acquisitions. Management believes that the use of non-GAAP tax provisions provides a more meaningful measure of the Company’s operational performance.

These non-GAAP measures are not in accordance with, or an alternative for, measures prepared in accordance with GAAP, and may be different from non-GAAP measures used by other companies. In addition, these non-GAAP measures are not based on any comprehensive set of accounting rules or principles. NetApp believes that non-GAAP measures have limitations in that they do not reflect all of the amounts associated with the Company’s results of operations as determined in accordance with GAAP and that these measures should only be used to evaluate the Company’s results of operations in conjunction with the corresponding GAAP measures. NetApp management compensates for these limitations by analyzing current and projected results on a GAAP basis as well as a non-GAAP basis. The presentation of non-GAAP financial information is not meant to be considered in isolation or as a substitute for the directly comparable financial measures prepared in accordance with generally accepted accounting principles in the United States. The non-GAAP financial measures are meant to supplement, and be viewed in conjunction with, GAAP financial measures.

Some items may not add or recalculate due to rounding.