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FY2026 Q2
Improving
NetApp, Inc. earnings call
Buzzberg read
AI deal velocity nearly doubled sequentially
NetApp reported a strong fiscal Q2 beat on margins and EPS, driven by AI wins and a favorable mix shift towards higher-margin cloud and flash products. While revenue growth was modest at 3%, management raised its full-year profitability outlook due to operational discipline. The company provided a cautionary Q3 revenue forecast, citing a slow recovery in the US public sector from the government shutdown, but continues to leverage its AI capabilities. Revenue grew 3% year-over-year to $1.71B, beating guidance, driven by strong all-flash, AI, and public cloud services, which offset a steep decline in US public sector sales.
Buzzberg read AI deal velocity nearly doubled sequentially NetApp reported a strong fiscal Q2 beat on margins and EPS, driven by AI wins and a favorable mix shift towards higher-margin cloud and flash products. While revenue growth was modest at 3%, management raised its full-year profitability outlook due to operational discipline. The company provided a cautionary Q3 revenue forecast, citing a slow recovery in the US public sector from the government shutdown, but continues to leverage its AI capabilities. Revenue grew 3% year-over-year to $1.71B, beating guidance, driven by strong all-flash, AI, and public cloud services, which offset a steep decline in US public sector sales. Read full analysisCollapse analysis
NetApp reported a strong fiscal Q2 beat on margins and EPS, driven by AI wins and a favorable mix shift towards higher-margin cloud and flash products. While revenue growth was modest at 3%, management raised its full-year profitability outlook due to operational discipline. The company provided a cautionary Q3 revenue forecast, citing a slow recovery in the US public sector from the government shutdown, but continues to leverage its AI capabilities. Revenue grew 3% year-over-year to $1.71B, beating guidance, driven by strong all-flash, AI, and public cloud services, which offset a steep decline in US public sector sales.
- All-flash array revenue grew 9% year-over-year to $1B, while first-party and marketplace cloud storage revenue grew 32%, highlighting strong demand for these products.
- AI momentum continued with approximately 200 AI infrastructure and data lake deals closed in the quarter, up from 100+ a year ago, across various industries.
- Management raised full-year FY2026 gross margin, operating margin, and EPS guidance, reflecting improved profitability despite revenue challenges.
HYBRID_CLOUD Revenue$1.53BReported
PUBLIC_CLOUD Revenue171Reported
Revenue$1.705BReported
EPS$2.05Reported
6 grounded callouts
What matters now
The highest-signal changes from the call.
Cloud
First-party cloud services revenue up 32%
Margins
Product gross margin expansion to 59.5%
Show 3 more callouts
Supply
Component pricing visibility through fiscal year end
Demand
Keystone RPO up 39%, strong growth trajectory
Demand
USPS expected to be below seasonality in Q3
Reported period
Actuals
| Metric | Reported | Change |
|---|---|---|
| HYBRID_CLOUD Revenue | $1.53B | Reported |
| PUBLIC_CLOUD Revenue | 171 | Reported |
| Revenue | $1.705B | Reported |
| EPS | $2.05 | Reported |
| Gross margin | 71.96% | Reported |
| Operating margin | 23.4% | Reported |
Forward-looking
Forward guidance
| Metric | Period | Range | Midpoint | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| EPS | FY2026 | $7.75–$8.05 | $7.90 | Raised |
| EPS | FY2026 Q3 | $2.01–$2.11 | $2.06 | Guided |
| Gross margin | FY2026 Q3 | 72.3%–73.3% | 72.8% | Guided |
| Gross margin | FY2026 | 71.7%–72.7% | 72.2% | Raised |
| Operating margin | FY2026 Q3 | 30.5%–31.5% | 31% | Guided |
| Operating margin | FY2026 | 29.5%–30.5% | 30% | Raised |
| Revenue | FY2026 Q3 | $1.615B–$1.765B | $1.69B | Guided |
| Revenue | FY2026 | $6.625B–$6.875B | $6.75B | Maintained |
AI, capex & demand read
Management read
Confident
Management expressed confidence in their AI strategy and execution, highlighted record margins and strong demand in key growth areas despite macro uncertainties, and reiterated their ability to outgrow the market.
Management AI read
Management highlighted strong demand for AI solutions, with approximately 200 AI infrastructure and data lake modernization deals closed in Q2, up from 125 in the prior quarter. They introduced new AI-focused products (AFX, AIDE) and see AI as a key growth driver, with inferencing expected to drive storage consumption as adoption matures.
Investment and capacity
Capex not explicitly discussed. Cash flow from operations of $127 million was impacted by typical Q2 seasonality and a transition tax payment, and management expects operating expenses to trend slightly higher in the second half to support growth investments.
all 5 named companies below
Companiesreturns since call
Partners
Partners
George Kurian
NetApp's new flagship AI storage product is certified for NVIDIA's flagship AI infrastructure, indicating alignment with NVIDIA's ecosystem for AI workloads.
Evidence
“We launched AFX, an ultra scalable, extreme performance, disaggregated storage platform, certified for NVIDIA SuperPOD.”
Partners
George Kurian
NetApp's first-party and marketplace cloud storage services revenue grew 32% year-over-year, making it a key growth engine and a de facto proxy for enterprise cloud storage consumption expansion. — Strong 'storage-as-a-software' growth within hyperscaler marketplaces underscores the underlying demand for enterprise storage and the stickiness of cloud provider ecosystems.
Evidence
“In Q2, we expanded our native AI capabilities in Azure and Google Cloud, adding to what is already available in Amazon Web Services.”
Partners
George Kurian
NetApp's first-party and marketplace cloud storage services revenue grew 32% year-over-year, making it a key growth engine and a de facto proxy for enterprise cloud storage consumption expansion. — Strong 'storage-as-a-software' growth within hyperscaler marketplaces underscores the underlying demand for enterprise storage and the stickiness of cloud provider ecosystems.
Evidence
“in Amazon FSX for NetApp ONTAP, we announced support for Amazon Elastic VMware Service”
Partners
George Kurian
NetApp's first-party and marketplace cloud storage services revenue grew 32% year-over-year, making it a key growth engine and a de facto proxy for enterprise cloud storage consumption expansion. — Strong 'storage-as-a-software' growth within hyperscaler marketplaces underscores the underlying demand for enterprise storage and the stickiness of cloud provider ecosystems.
Evidence
“We launched support for block storage capabilities in Google Cloud NetApp volumes in Q2.”
Supply chain
ANDURIL
Supply chain
George Kurian
NetApp's AI storage solutions are likely used in defense and sovereign AI initiatives, where private companies like Anduril are active, but the reference is indirect.
Evidence
“Many customers begin their AI journey by updating data lake environments and storage grid object storage delivers the optimized performance”
External signals
Supply-chain alpha · 3returns since call
NetApp has secured component supply and pricing visibility through the end of its fiscal year (April 2026) and anticipates cost headwinds into fiscal 2027 if current commodity prices persist, while noting it can pass through higher prices if needed.
Evidence
“we do have visibility for a couple more quarters, I would say, at least until the end of this fiscal year. ... If we continue to see similar levels, let's say, of some of the commodities in particular, let's say, I know you probably have i…”
NetApp's first-party and marketplace cloud storage services revenue grew 32% year-over-year, making it a key growth engine and a de facto proxy for enterprise cloud storage consumption expansion.
Evidence
“This strategy has yielded rapid expansion in our highly differentiated first party and marketplace cloud storage services, with revenue increasing approximately 32% from Q2 a year ago.”
The US Public Sector (USPS) business experienced a steep decline due to the extended shutdown, which management expects to continue to be sub-seasonal in the near-term third quarter.
Methodology & coverage
Management-only analysis. All 5 validated company mentions are shown. Reported actuals and forward guidance are kept separate. Public evidence is limited to eight short attributed quotes. AI-generated analysis can be incomplete or wrong; verify important claims against the original source.