NetApp: Fiscal 1Q12 Financial Results

NetApp, Inc. reported results for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, which ended July 29, 2011.   

Revenues for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 totaled $1.458 billion compared to revenues of $1.154 billion for the same period one year ago.

For the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, GAAP net income was $139.5 million, or $0.34 per share, compared to GAAP net income of $150.7 million, or $0.40 per share, for the same period a year ago. Non-GAAP net income for the first quarter of fiscal year 2012 was $222.3 million, or $0.55 per share, compared to non-GAAP net income of $190.9 million, or $0.51 per share, for the same period a year ago.

"Despite the challenging macroeconomic environment modestly impacting our revenue growth, NetApp still produced earnings per share slightly above the midpoint of our targeted range. The company achieved record levels of FAS6000 systems sales, near record numbers of new enterprise customer wins, and our new E-series sales exceeded our forecast," said Tom Georgens, president and CEO. "Our gross margin performance demonstrates the strength of our competitive position in the market, helping us to achieve healthy operating results and earnings per share."

Outlook

• NetApp estimates revenue for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012 to be in the range of $1.500 billion to $1.600 billion, which equates to approximately 3% to 10% sequential revenue growth and approximately 20% to 28% year-over-year revenue growth.   
• NetApp estimates that second quarter fiscal year 2012 GAAP earnings per share will be approximately $0.38 to $0.42 per share.   NetApp estimates that second quarter fiscal year 2012 non-GAAP earnings per share will be approximately $0.58 to $0.62 per share.   
• NetApp estimates that share count for the second quarter of fiscal year 2012 will decrease to approximately 392 million shares, including an estimated 10 million shares from the company’s outstanding convertible notes and 2 million shares from outstanding warrants. Share count does not include the company’s outstanding note hedges which are expected to offset 80% of the dilution from the convertible notes at maturity or conversion.  

Business Highlights
In the first quarter of fiscal year 2012, NetApp continued to help customers and partners more effectively manage significant data growth and capitalize on business opportunities. During the quarter, NetApp completed its purchase of the Engenio external storage systems business from LSI Corporation and unveiled new solutions to address growing customer requirements in the areas of big bandwidth and analytics. Additionally, NetApp continued to be a partner for customers in their transition to the cloud. NetApp again received awards honoring its innovation leadership, channel excellence, and culture, most recently being named one of the world’s most innovative companies by Forbes magazine.

Highlights for the quarter included the following:

NetApp Builds on E-Series Platform,
Delivers Solutions to Help Customers and OEMs
Address Big Data Requirements
The new NetApp E5400 storage system delivers compelling performance for big-bandwidth applications, extreme storage density, and exceptional uptime, enabling OEMs to address their customers’ growing high-performance workload requirements. NetApp also introduced two new solutions built on the E-Series platform. The Full-Motion Video Storage Solution enables government agencies to take advantage of full-motion video technology to make better decisions in the field. The Hadoop Storage Solution gives customers the ability to speed deployment and simplify management of Hadoop infrastructures for improved analytics.   

NetApp Accelerates Customers’ Path to the Cloud
NetApp bolsters management capabilities to provide common foundation for enterprise clouds. New technologies in NetApp OnCommand management software enable customers to accelerate and simplify their transition to public, private, and hybrid cloud models. The NetApp Alliance Technology Partner Program also now includes cloud management leaders, delivering integration between industry-leading cloud management solutions and NetApp to provide customers with end-to-end management of the entire cloud infrastructure.   

NetApp collaborates with Microsoft and Cisco to help customers transition to a private cloud. The NetApp Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track with Cisco data center architecture design offers customers advanced management and service automation capabilities to accelerate private cloud deployment and improve operations. With this new solution NetApp is also now part of Microsoft’s Hyper-V Cloud Fast Track program, further strengthening the relationship between the two companies.   

NetApp and Cisco FlexPod data center solution shows strong market momentum. NetApp and Cisco now have more than 150 customers who have implemented data center solutions based on the FlexPod design architecture. The pretested architectural design guide combines networking, computing, and storage in a shared infrastructure and helps channel partners accelerate and simplify customers’ transition to the cloud.   

Milestones and Awards

• NetApp named one of world’s most innovative companies by Forbes magazine. NetApp, the only major storage vendor to make the list of 100 companies, was recognized for building a culture of innovation that has transformed the foundation of its customers’ business and has been a catalyst to their success. This innovation has been a major driver behind NetApp’s growth and continued success.   
• NetApp continues to rank as one of the best places to work. NetApp was once again named a best place to work, ranking #4 in Minnesota in the small employer category, #5 in Washington, D.C. in the large company category, and #14 in Boston in the medium-size category.
• NetApp recognized for continued channel leadership. NetApp was named to Everything Channel’s CRN Virtualization 100 list due to its success in helping resellers grow their business and support their customers.