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NTAP, NetApp Inc.

NetApp's sustained success is built on several enduring competitive strengths that set us apart in the market: Deep Cloud Integration : Our native integration with AWS, Microsoft Azure, and Google Cloud provides customers with significant flexibility, unified management, and consistent data services across any environment.

Our flagship ONTAP data management software, together with a comprehensive portfolio of all-flash, hybrid-flash, and cloud-native solutions, forms the backbone of digital transformation for thousands of enterprises worldwide.

We are well positioned to enable Intelligent Data Infrastructure for our customers and help them realize the full promise of artificial intelligence (AI) providing solutions that connect, protect, and activate data across every data environment—on-premises, in the cloud, and at the edge.

Latest annual: FY2026 10-K

NTAP · NetApp Inc.

The business

What it sells, where the money comes from, the kind of company it is.

Revenue · FY2026

$6.9B

+5.4% YoY · 4% 5-yr CAGR

Vital signs · TTM, with 5-yr average

Revenue $6.9B 5-yr avg $6.5B

Gross margin 71% 5-yr avg 69%

Operating margin 24.2% 5-yr avg 19.6%

ROIC 73% 5-yr avg 72%

Owner-earnings margin 27% 5-yr avg 21%

Free cash flow margin 27% 5-yr avg 20%

The business in brief

read the 10-K →

What this business is and what moves its needle, from its own SEC filings.

What it is: Revenue is All-flash revenues (60%) and Hybrid-flash and other revenues (30%).
What moves the needle: Gross margin has run about 66% and operating margin about 18% through the cycle, a wide spread between price and the cost of what it sells — whether that advantage is durable pricing power or a margin that can erode is the question the record is for. On its own account, the filing leans hardest on customer concentration, set against the numbers in what the filing emphasizes, below.
Is it a good business?: Return on capital has run high across the record (median 70%, above 15% in 6 of 6 years), though buybacks and expensed R&D and brands shrink the capital base, so the figure overstates the underlying economics. The steadier read is owner earnings: roughly 20% of revenue reaches owners as cash, consistently. Whether these returns reflect real pricing power or an accounting artifact is the judgment the 10-K is for.

Every line is arithmetic on the company's filings, shown in full in the sections below.

Where the money comes from

read the 10-K →

All-flash revenues is 60% of revenue, with Hybrid-flash and other revenues the other meaningful segment at 30%.

Revenue by reportable segment, FY2026

All-flash revenues60%$4.2B
Hybrid-flash and other revenues30%$2.1B

By geographyAmericas51%EMEA34%Asia Pacific15%

From the segment footnote of the company's own 10-K. Shares are of total revenue; the profit bar shows each segment's share of segment operating profit, before unallocated corporate costs.

The record

Ten years of arithmetic, read across the cycle.

The record, 2017–2026

realized figures from each filing · older years to the left

2017’17	2018’18	2019’19	2020’20	2021’21	2022’22	2023’23	2024’24	2025’25	2026’26	TTMTTMApr 2026
											Income statement
$5.5B	$5.9B	$6.1B	$5.4B	$5.7B	$6.3B	$6.4B	$6.3B	$6.6B	$6.9B	$6.9B	RevenueRevenue
61%	63%	64%	67%	66%	67%	66%	71%	70%	71%	71%	Gross marginGross mgn
5%	5%	5%	5%	4%	4%	4%	5%	5%	5%	5%	SG&A / revenueSG&A/rev
14%	13%	13%	16%	15%	14%	15%	16%	15%	14%	14%	R&D / revenueR&D/rev
$621M	$1.2B	$1.2B	$945M	$1.0B	$1.2B	$1.0B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.7B	$1.7B	Operating incomeOp. inc.
11.3%	19.6%	19.9%	17.5%	17.9%	18.3%	16.0%	19.4%	20.3%	24.2%	24.2%	Operating marginOp. mgn
$481M	$116M	$1.2B	$819M	$730M	$937M	$1.3B	$986M	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	Net incomeNet inc.
23%	—	8%	13%	24%	14%	—	22%	14%	23%	23%	Effective tax rateTax rate
											Cash flow & returns
$986M	$1.5B	$1.3B	$1.1B	$1.3B	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.7B	$1.5B	$2.1B	$2.1B	Operating cash flowOp. cash
$178M	$145M	$150M	$154M	$158M	$148M	$181M	$198M	$196M	$179M	$179M	DepreciationDeprec.
$132M	$1.1B	($136M)	($66M)	$248M	($119M)	($660M)	$144M	($262M)	$230M	$230M	Working capital & otherWC & other
$175M	$145M	$173M	$124M	$162M	$226M	$239M	$155M	$168M	$198M	$198M	CapexCapex
3.2%	2.4%	2.8%	2.3%	2.8%	3.6%	3.8%	2.5%	2.6%	2.9%	2.9%	Capex / revenueCapex/rev
$811M	$1.3B	$1.2B	$936M	$1.2B	$1.1B	$926M	$1.5B	$1.3B	$1.9B	$1.9B	Owner earningsOwner earn.
14.8%	22.5%	19.0%	17.3%	20.4%	16.8%	14.6%	24.4%	20.4%	27.0%	27.0%	Owner earnings marginOE mgn
$811M	$1.3B	$1.2B	$936M	$1.2B	$985M	$868M	$1.5B	$1.3B	$1.9B	$1.9B	Free cash flowFCF
14.8%	22.5%	19.0%	17.3%	20.4%	15.6%	13.6%	24.4%	20.4%	27.0%	27.0%	Free cash flow marginFCF mgn
$8M	$75M	$3M	$73M	$350M	$380M	$491M	$0	$0	—	$0	AcquisitionsAcquis.
$208M	$214M	$403M	$439M	$427M	$446M	$432M	$416M	$424M	$413M	$413M	Dividends paidDiv. paid
$705M	$794M	$2.1B	$1.4B	$125M	$600M	$850M	$900M	$1.1B	$950M	—	BuybacksBuybacks
24%	66%	—	—	—	—	83%	58%	75%	73%	73%	ROICROIC
16%	5%	107%	338%	107%	112%	110%	86%	114%	94%	94%	Return on equityROE
9%	−4%	70%	157%	44%	59%	73%	50%	73%	64%	64%	Retained to equityRetained/eq
											Balance sheet
$4.9B	$5.4B	$3.9B	$2.9B	$4.6B	$4.1B	$3.1B	$3.3B	$3.8B	$3.6B	$3.6B	Cash & investmentsCash+inv
$731M	$1.0B	$1.2B	$973M	$945M	$1.2B	$987M	$1.0B	$1.2B	$1.3B	$1.3B	ReceivablesReceiv.
$163M	$122M	$131M	$145M	$114M	$204M	$167M	$186M	$186M	$198M	$198M	InventoryInvent.
$347M	$609M	$542M	$426M	$420M	$607M	$392M	$517M	$511M	$550M	$550M	Accounts payablePayables
$547M	$560M	$805M	$692M	$639M	$827M	$762M	$676M	$921M	$934M	$934M	Operating working capitalOper. WC
$6.2B	$7.0B	$5.6B	$4.3B	$6.0B	$5.9B	$4.7B	$4.9B	$5.9B	$5.8B	$5.8B	Current assetsCur. assets
$4.1B	$3.5B	$3.9B	$3.6B	$3.5B	$4.0B	$3.5B	$4.1B	$4.7B	$4.0B	$4.0B	Current liabilitiesCur. liab.
1.5×	2.0×	1.5×	1.2×	1.7×	1.5×	1.3×	1.2×	1.3×	1.4×	1.4×	Current ratioCurr. ratio
$1.7B	$1.7B	$1.7B	$1.8B	$2.0B	$2.3B	$2.8B	$2.8B	$2.7B	$2.8B	$2.8B	GoodwillGoodwill
$9.5B	$10.0B	$8.7B	$7.5B	$9.4B	$10.0B	$9.8B	$9.9B	$10.8B	$10.7B	$10.7B	Total assetsAssets
$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.5B	$1.1B	$2.6B	$2.6B	$2.4B	$2.4B	$3.2B	$2.5B	$2.5B	Total debtDebt
($3.4B)	($3.9B)	($2.4B)	($1.7B)	($2.0B)	($1.5B)	($681M)	($860M)	($611M)	($1.1B)	($1.1B)	Net debt / (cash)Net debt
11.9×	18.7×	21.1×	17.2×	13.9×	15.8×	15.2×	19.0×	20.9×	15.4×	15.4×	Interest coverageInt. cov.
$2.9B	$2.3B	$1.1B	$242M	$685M	$838M	$1.2B	$1.1B	$1.0B	$1.4B	$1.4B	Shareholders’ equityEquity
3.6%	2.7%	2.6%	2.8%	3.4%	3.9%	4.9%	5.7%	5.9%	5.5%	5.5%	Stock comp / revenueSBC/rev
											Per share
281M	276M	259M	233M	226M	229M	220M	213M	209M	201M	201M	Shares out (diluted)Shares
$19.54	$21.45	$23.73	$23.23	$25.42	$27.59	$28.92	$29.43	$31.44	$34.45	$34.45	Revenue / shareRev/sh
$1.71	$0.42	$4.51	$3.52	$3.23	$4.09	$5.79	$4.63	$5.67	$6.35	$6.35	EPS (diluted)EPS
$2.89	$4.83	$4.51	$4.02	$5.18	$4.64	$4.21	$7.18	$6.40	$9.30	$9.30	Owner earnings / shareOE/sh
$2.89	$4.83	$4.51	$4.02	$5.18	$4.30	$3.95	$7.18	$6.40	$9.30	$9.30	Free cash flow / shareFCF/sh
$0.74	$0.78	$1.56	$1.88	$1.89	$1.95	$1.96	$1.95	$2.03	$2.05	$2.05	Dividends / shareDiv/sh
$0.62	$0.53	$0.67	$0.53	$0.72	$0.99	$1.09	$0.73	$0.80	$0.99	$0.99	Cap. spending / shareCapex/sh
$10.49	$8.25	$4.21	$1.04	$3.03	$3.66	$5.27	$5.38	$4.98	$6.72	$6.72	Book value / shareBVPS

Per-share growththe realized rate an owner's share compounded

	9-yr	5-yr
Revenue / share	+6.5%/yr	+6.3%/yr
Owner earnings / share	+13.9%/yr	+12.4%/yr
EPS	+15.7%/yr	+14.5%/yr
Dividends / share	+12.0%/yr	+1.7%/yr
Capital spending / share	+5.2%/yr	+6.6%/yr
Book value / share	−4.8%/yr	+17.3%/yr

The year, in the company's words

the filing →

Verbatim from the 10-K's management discussion. Each sentence is shown only because its subject, direction check out against the filed numbers on this page. The words are the company's; the arithmetic is the record's.

Support+4.9%
“Support revenues increased in fiscal 2026 compared to fiscal 2025 primarily due to a higher aggregate support contract value for our installed base and the favorable impact from foreign exchange rate fluctuations.”
✓ direction matches the filed record
Public Cloud+3.5%
“Public Cloud revenues increased in fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2025 compared to the respective prior years primarily due to higher customer demand, driven by NetApp’s diversified cloud offerings and overall growth in the cloud market.”
✓ direction matches the filed record
Professional and Other Services+14.6%
“Professional and other services revenues increased in fiscal 2026 and fiscal 2025 compared to the respective prior years primarily reflecting higher revenues from our Keystone Storage-as-a-Service offering.”
✓ direction matches the filed record

The record, charted

FY2017–2026

Each measure over its full record; the current point and the worst year marked.

Share count

201Mpeak FY2017

ROIC

73%low FY2017

Gross margin

71%low FY2017

Owner earnings vs. net income

Owner earningsNet income

The accountant's number, and the cash an owner can take; the gap is the tell.

$1.9Bowner earningsvs.$1.3Bnet incomelow FY2017

Where the cash went

ReinvestBuybacksDividendsAcquisitionsRetainedBeyond op. cash

Each year's outlays against its operating cash: the mix, and how it drifts. The hatched cap is spending beyond that year's operating cash — financed from the balance sheet or borrowing, not operations.

FY2017FY2026

Owner-earnings bridge

FY2022–FY2026cash-flow statement, SEC EDGAR →

Net income is the accountant's number; owner earnings is the cash an owner could take out. The walk between them, off the cash-flow statement, and whether the gap is widening or holding.

In fiscal 2026 the business turned $1.3B of profit into $1.9B of owner earnings: more cash than the profit line showed, after the non-cash charges and the capital it put back in.

Reported net income$1.3B

Owner earnings$1.9B · 27% of revenue

	FY2026	FY2025	FY2024	FY2023	FY2022
Reported net income	$1.3B	$1.2B	$986M	$1.3B	$937M
Depreciation & amortizationnon-cash charge added back	+$179M	+$196M	+$198M	+$181M	+$148M
Stock-based compensationreal costnon-cash, but a real cost	+$382M	+$386M	+$357M	+$312M	+$245M
Working capital & othertiming of cash in and out, other non-cash items	+$230M	−$262M	+$144M	−$660M	−$119M
Cash from operations	$2.1B	$1.5B	$1.7B	$1.1B	$1.2B
Maintenance capital expenditurethe spending needed just to hold position and volume	−$198M	−$168M	−$155M	−$181M	−$148M
Owner earnings	$1.9B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$926M	$1.1B
Growth capital expenditurediscretionary; spent to get bigger, not to stand still	—	—	—	−$58M	−$78M
Free cash flow	$1.9B	$1.3B	$1.5B	$868M	$985M
Owner-earnings marginowner earnings ÷ revenue	27%	20%	24%	15%	17%

Owner earnings is the cash an owner could pull out without starving the business: operating cash less the capital it must spend to hold its position . The cash-flow statement also adds stock comp back as non-cash, but it is a real cost paid in shares; counted as the expense it is (less $382M), owner earnings is nearer $1.5B.

Maintenance capex is estimated as depreciation where a growing business invests above it; free cash flow is the figure the scorecard's free-cash margin reads.

III

Quality & stewardship

Returns, the balance sheet, capital allocation, and pay.

Owner’s Scorecard

FY2026 10-K · source on SEC EDGAR →

Will it survive?

Can it pay its interest? 15.4×

Comfortable

Operating income $1.7B ÷ interest expense $109M

What this means
Operating profit covers interest with the kind of margin Graham wanted for a defensive holding. Necessary, not sufficient, it says solvent, not cheap.
How heavy is the debt, net of cash? +$1.1B

Net cash

Cash $2.1B + ST investments $1.5B − debt $2.5B

What this means
Cash and short-term investments exceed every dollar of debt by $1.1B, on net the company owes nothing, and can act from strength when others can't. Net debt is the leverage figure that matters: the cash is already set against the debt. Strategic or illiquid investments aren't counted here.
How long is cash tied up? 4d

Tight

DSO 68 + DIO 36 − DPO 99 days

What this means
Days cash is tied up between paying suppliers and collecting from customers. Lower is better; a long cycle means growth itself eats cash.

Is it a good business?

Return on invested capital 66%

Very high (≥25%) through the cycle

6-yr median, range 24%–83%; 73% latest = NOPAT $1.3B ÷ invested capital $1.8B

Industry peers: median 2%

What this means
The rate the business earns on the money tied up in it, Buffett's north star, because over time a stock tracks the ROIC beneath it. Above ~15% sustained hints at a moat; a return below the cost of capital (~8%) erodes value as a business grows rather than building it — the test Buffett weighs most. The headline is the median of the last 6 years (it ran 73% most recently), so one peak or trough year doesn't set the verdict. Asset-light businesses (R&D expensed, little capital) read artificially high, pair this with Owner Earnings.
Owner-earnings margin 19%

High through the cycle

10-yr median margin, range 15%–27%; latest $1.9B = operating cash $2.1B − maintenance capex $198M

Industry peers: median 11%

What this means
What an owner could take out without starving the business: operating cash less the maintenance capital it must spend to hold its position — Buffett's owner earnings. That's 27% of revenue this year, a 19% median across 10 years. Treating stock comp as the real expense it is (less $382M of SBC) leaves $1.5B.
Are earnings backed by cash? 1.62×

Cash-backed

Cash from ops $2.1B ÷ net income $1.3B

What this means
How much of reported profit showed up as operating cash. Above 1× is reassuring; well below suggests earnings lean on accruals. One year is noisy, growth and working-capital swings distort it, and this is operating cash, not free cash. Watch the multi-year trend.

How is the cash used?

Where do the earnings go? 73%

Returns about half

Dividends + buybacks $1.4B ÷ Owner Earnings $1.9B

What this means
Of $1.9B Owner Earnings, $1.4B (73%) went back to shareholders, $413M dividends, $950M buybacks. Net of $382M stock comp, the real buyback was about $568M. Returning most of it is the mark of a mature business with little left to reinvest at a high return; reinvesting most could mean a long runway, or empire-building. The split doesn't say which; the return earned on it (see ROIC) does.
Investing or harvesting? 1.11×

Maintaining

Capex $198M ÷ depreciation $179M

What this means
Descriptive, not a grade. Above ~1× means investing faster than assets wear out (growth, or, sustained for years, today's earnings carrying less depreciation than tomorrow's will). Below means spending less than it's wearing out (efficiency, or a melting asset base). The ratio won't tell you which; the filings will.

Graham’s defensive tests · 4 of 6 met

Graham’s numerical criteria for the defensive investor (The Intelligent Investor, ch. 14), run on the filings. A floor of safety, not a buy signal; many fine modern businesses fail his strictest liquidity rules by design.

Adequate size Pass

Revenue ≥ $2B · $6.9B

What this means
Big enough to weather a storm. Graham's 1972 floor was ~$100M of sales (≈ $700M today); we use a $2B revenue line as a conservative modern stand-in.
Strong liquidity Miss

Current ratio ≥ 2× · 1.44×

What this means
Current assets at least twice current liabilities, near-term bills covered without touching the business. Strict by design: many cash-rich modern firms run leaner and miss it, holding their cushion in longer-dated securities.
Conservative debt Near

Debt ≤ working capital · $2.5B vs $1.8B WC

What this means
Graham's rule that borrowings not exceed net current assets. Capital-heavy and buyback-heavy firms routinely fail it, read it next to interest coverage, not alone.
Earnings stability Pass

A profit every year (10-yr record) · no losses

What this means
Graham wanted earnings in each of the past ten years, the stability a defensive owner leans on.
Dividend record Pass

Uninterrupted dividends · paid every year (10)

What this means
An unbroken dividend was Graham's mark of durability. He wanted twenty years; the filings show about ten, and a single suspension breaks the streak. Non-payers, many fine modern compounders, fall outside his defensive net by design.
Earnings growth Pass

Earnings +33% over the record · +95%

What this means
At least a third more earnings than a decade ago, averaging three years at each end. Net income (not per-share), so stock splits don't distort it, buybacks and dilution show up in the share-count line instead.
Moderate price —

P/E ≤ 15 and P/E × P/B ≤ 22.5 · decided by the price

What this means
Graham's valuation gate, the wall he kept between a sound business and a sound investment. Three-year average earnings are $5.87/share (latest year $6.51), the averaged base the calculator's gate runs on, and book value is $6.90/share. Enter a price in “What the price implies” just below for the P/E, P/B, and whether it clears. But this is the rule Buffett outgrew: there's no hard P/E law, and a wonderful business can deserve a far richer multiple if the thesis holds, treat it as the bargain-hunter's floor, not a verdict on the price.

Durability & moat, 2017–2026

Whether the record’s returns held, and what the capital reinvested earned.

Profitable years 10 of 10

What this means
Never lost money over the record, the earnings stability Graham insisted on.
Return on capital ≥ 15% 7 of 7 yrs

What this means
A moat shows up as a high return on invested capital that holds year after year, not one good vintage.
Operating margin 17% → 21% (3-yr avg ends)

In the filing’s words The record and the words agree: the margin widened and the filing attributes the gain to its own pricing, not volume alone.

What this means
Through the cycle the operating margin widened — about 17% early to 21% lately, median 18% — pricing power intact or improving.
Reinvestment, incremental ROIC —

What this means
The reinvested base moved too little against the change in profit to read a reliable return on it here — the figure would be a small-denominator artifact, not a moat. Judge this one on the owner-earnings record and the cash it returns instead.
Owner earnings growth +5%/yr

What this means
Owner earnings grew about 5% a year over the record.
Worst year 2017 · 11.3% op. margin

What this means
Stayed profitable even in its hardest year, the resilience that survives recessions.
Share count −3.7%/yr

What this means
The share count is shrinking, buybacks are quietly growing your slice of the business.
Dividend record rising

What this means
Paid and raised the dividend across the record, the continuity Graham prized.

Does AI threaten the moat?

Low contestability

The moat is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded, the kind AI cuts costs within but does not contest.

In its own filing Raised, but not as a competitor

The filing raises AI among its risks, but in other terms (security, regulation, energy or the like), not as a competitor to its product; it frames AI mainly as a capability.

AI is unlikely to contest a moat that is physical, regulated or balance-sheet-funded; here it reads more as a cost tool than a threat, and the company is using it that way.

Read from the filing's own risk factors, paired with the industry's structure under its SIC code; the durability is read above, the price below.

All figures as filed; the source filing is linked above.

Current Position

as of fiscal year-end, Apr 24, 2026

Can the business pay what it owes this year, off the freshest balance sheet: the quality of the assets, the debt actually coming due, and what a low ratio means here.

Current assets$5.8B

Cash & short-term investments$3.6B
Receivables$1.3B
Inventory$198M
Other current assets$708M

Current liabilities$4.0B

Accounts payable$550M
Other current liabilities$3.5B

Current ratio1.44×all current assets ÷ what's due · Graham looked for 2×

Quick ratio1.39×stricter: inventory excluded

Cash ratio0.89×strictest: cash alone against what's due

Working capital$1.8Bthe cushion left after near-term bills

Revenue, latest quarter vs. a year ago+4.4%the freshest read on whether the business is still growing

Current ratio, recent quarters1.0× → 1.4×

Deeper floors

Tangible book value($1.4B)equity stripped of goodwill & intangibles

Net current asset value($3.6B)Graham's net-net: current assets less all liabilities

Debt incl. operating leases$2.7B$246M of it operating leases

Deferred revenue$4.8Bcustomer cash collected before delivery; operating float

From the company's latest filing.

Debt maturity

the debt note, SEC EDGAR →

Not how much it owes, but when it falls due, and against what. The ladder the company files, beside cash on hand and a year's owner earnings.

'27$0

'28$550M

'29$0

'30$0

'31$700M

later$1.3B

Bars scaled to the largest single year; “later” is everything due after 2031, shown apart since it dwarfs the years.

Due in the next 12 months$0the first rung: what must be repaid or rolled over within the year

Within two years$550Mthe near wall, the part most exposed to today’s credit conditions

Biggest single year$700Min 2031the lumpiest maturity, where a refinancing, if needed, is largest

Total scheduled principal$2.5Bevery year plus what lies beyond, as the footnote totals it

Maturity schedule extracted from the company’s Apr 24, 2026 annual report and reconciled to the total the table states.

How the cash was used, 2017–2026

Over the record, the business generated $13.8B of operating cash; how management split it reads as a cash returner, paying most of what it earns straight back to owners.

Reinvested$1.8B · 13%
Dividends$3.8B · 28%
Buybacks$9.6B · 70%

Returned to owners$13.4B
110% of the owner earnings the business produced over the span, $3.8B as dividends and $9.6B as buybacks.
Source of funding−$1.4B
Reinvestment and shareholder returns ran $1.4B beyond the operating cash the business generated, so the gap was financed off the balance sheet: debt rose from $1.5B to $2.5B, and cash and short-term investments drew down $1.3B.
Average price paid for buybacks$57.46
Across the years where the filing reports a share count, 100M shares were bought for $5.7B, about $57.46 each. Year to year the price paid ranged from $32.05 (2017) to $85.71 (2022); its heaviest year, 2019, paid $72.79 ($2.1B).
Net change in share count−28.5%
The diluted count fell from 281M to 201M, so the buybacks outran the stock issued to staff.
Dividend record$2.05/sh
Paid in 10 of the years on record, the per-share dividend growing about 12% a year. It was never cut over the span.

Buybacks are gross of stock issued to staff; the share-count line above is the net of that, the figure that decides whether owners gained. The average price paid blends a year of purchases (and any accelerated repurchase), so it is close, not exact. The record of where the cash went and on what terms.

Acquisitions & goodwill

from the balance sheet & the 10-year cash-flow record

Goodwill grows only when a company acquires and falls only when it concedes it overpaid. The size of that bet, the cash put into buying rather than building, and how much has already been written off.

Goodwill & intangibles$2.8B26% of all assets; the premium carried on the balance sheet for businesses acquired

Against book equityexceeds itgoodwill alone is larger than the company’s entire book equity; stripped of the acquisition premium, there is no net book worth

Cash spent acquiring$1.4Bover 10 years buying other businesses, against $1.8B of capital spent building

None written down over the record; the goodwill is still carried at full cost. That is the deals holding their value on the books so far; whether they keep doing so is the test an owner watches, since the write-down, when it comes, is the admission the price was too high.

Goodwill, acquired intangibles and equity from the latest balance sheet; acquisition spend and write-downs summed across the 10-year record, from the company's own filings.

Management, ownership & pay

read the proxy →

From the proxy: how much of the business the people running it own, and how they are paid, beside what the business earned for its owners in the same years.

Fiscal year	Chief executive	Pay, as filed	“Actually paid”	Owner earnings
2021	George Kurian	$14.4M	$41.9M	$1.2B
2022	George Kurian	$18.9M	$17.4M	$1.1B
2023	George Kurian	$11.4M	$3.1M	$926M
2024	George Kurian	$17.7M	$39.8M	$1.5B
2025	George Kurian	$23.1M	$4.7M	$1.3B

Both pay figures are the company’s own, from the pay-versus-performance table its proxy statement files. “As filed” is the Summary Compensation Table total: salary, bonus, and equity awards at their value on the day of grant. “Actually paid” is the SEC’s prescribed recalculation, which re-marks those equity awards to what they became as they vested; it can swing far above or below the filed figure in either direction, and negative years occur. Owner earnings are the whole business's, from the record above, for the same fiscal years.

Insider ownership<1%
The stake all directors and executive officers hold together, per the 2025 proxy: skin in the game, the first thing Munger reads.
Stock-based compensation$382M
The slice of the business handed to employees in shares this year, 6% of revenue, equal to 23% of operating profit. Buffett's oldest accounting fight: this is compensation, compensation is an expense, real whether or not the headline earnings admit it. One trap: the cash-flow statement adds SBC back, so the operating cash, and the owner earnings drawn from it, are flattered by exactly this amount; counted as the cost it is, what an owner keeps is lower.

Inverting the record

Invert: instead of why NetApp Inc. is a good business, the question is what would make owning it a mistake, and whether those marks are in the record. Disconfirming tests across 2017–2026.

1 of the 5 tests turned up something to look into; the other 4 came back clean.

Look hereDid receivables and inventory outpace sales?16% → 21% of sales
Receivables and inventory grew from $894M to $1.5B while revenue grew 26%: working capital is climbing faster than sales (16% of revenue then, 21% now). That can mean customers paying slower, stock building up, or revenue pulled forward. The filing's cash-flow and receivables notes say which.

And these came back clean

Is it less profitable than it was?
Did the share count rise anyway?
Did debt outgrow the business?
Did reported profit become cash?

Each test is read from the filings and is noisy alone; a flag can mark a cyclical trough or a year of heavy investment as easily as a problem. The filing says which.

Peers, Technology Hardware

The same industry, side by side on owner economics. Each figure is a through-cycle median, so a peak or trough year can’t distort it; the group median at the foot is the line to read each against.

Company	Revenue	Gross margin	Op. margin	ROIC	Owner earn. margin
WDCWestern Digital Corporation	$9.5B	28%	7.2%	6%	4%
STXSeagate Technology Holdings PLC	$9.1B	28%	13.2%	29%	11%
ANETArista Networks Inc.	$9.0B	64%	32.4%	33%	33%
SNDKSandisk Corporation	$7.4B	16%	-18.7%	-11%	-7%
XRXXerox Holdings Corporation	$7.0B	—	-0.4%	-2%	8%
NTAPNetApp Inc.	$6.9B	67%	18.8%	70%	20%
FTNTFortinet Inc.	$6.8B	77%	20.5%	—	36%
PEverpure Inc.	$3.7B	69%	-8.1%	-12%	12%
Group median	—	64%	10.2%	6%	11%

The price

What a price has to assume.

What the price implies

reverse-DCF

Type today's close and see the owner-earnings growth you'd have to believe to justify it, beside what NetApp Inc. has delivered.

NetApp Inc.’s latest year runs above its own through-cycle margin — the reported figure may flatter a peak. So the tool opens on the through-cycle base, Graham’s averaging cutting both ways; clear the toggle below to read the latest year exactly as reported.

Today’s price $

Through the cycle, NetApp Inc. earns about $1.4B on its 19.7% median owner-earnings margin. This year’s 27.0% margin runs above that; the reported figure may flatter a peak you'd be paying on. Normalize, below, values the price on that through-cycle figure rather than the latest year. It comes pre-checked here for that reason, the same rule that already normalizes a trough; clear it to price the year as filed.

Base Normalize · through-cycle ($1.4B) Net of stock comp (−$382M)

—

The assumptions Required return 9% Years of high growth 10 Terminal growth 2.5%

9.0% = the 4.55% 10-year Treasury (Jul 15, 2026) + 4.45 points of equity premium. The rate you require is yours to set.

Enter a price above to run it.

Implied by the price—

Owner-earnings growth · ’22→’26+13%/yr

Owner-earnings growth · ’17→’26+5%/yr

Owner-earnings yield—

P/E (3-yr earnings ’24–’26)—

P/B—

Graham’s price gate—

Graham capped the multiple at 15×; Buffett and Munger let that rule go: a wonderful business can deserve 50× if the thesis holds. The gate marks the bargain-hunter's floor.

Against a high-grade bond: Graham’s yardstick bond yield%

Prefilled with the 10-year Treasury (4.55%, as of Jul 15, 2026). Edit it for today’s exact figure, or a AAA corporate yield.

Graham measured a stock against the bond you could own instead, the heart of his margin of safety. Enter a price above to weigh the owner-earnings yield against this bond.

Owner earnings $1.9B on 196M shares outstanding, per the 10-K cover, as of 2026-05-28; net cash $1.1B. The base opens on the through-cycle figure (the latest year sits above the record’s own median, and Graham’s averaging cuts both ways); clear Normalize to use the year as filed. Net of stock comp treats option pay as the expense it is. The dials set the multiple a growth belief justifies; the price, and every dollar on this page, is yours.

Weigh NTAP against another business →

The owners of NTAP: the meeting and the votes →

Cite: Owner Scorecard, "NetApp Inc. (NTAP), the owner's record," https://ownerscorecard.com/c/NTAP, data as of 2026-07-09.

Manual order: ← NSSC its page in the Manual NTCT →

Industry order: ← NATL the Technology Hardware chapter OSS →