NetApp Posts 40 Percent Quarterly Sales Growth

Revenue for the fourth quarter of fiscal year 2004 was $337 million, up 40 percent compared to the $246.1 million reported for the same quarter last year. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based storage vendor reported earnings of $36.4 million, or 10 cents per share, up 47 percent compared to last year's $24.8 million, or 7 cents per share.

Revenue for full fiscal year 2004 was $1.2 billion, up 31 percent compared to the $892.1 million recorded in fiscal year 2003. Net income for the year reached $152.1 million, or 42 cents per share, nearly double the $76.5 million, or 22 cents per share, reported last year. The Wall Street consensus was 40 cents per share, according to a survey of analysts by Thomson FIrst Call.

In a prepared statement, Network Appliance CEO Dan Warmenhoven said, "NetApp posted exceptional performance during the quarter. Our accelerating growth during the year was driven by the adoption of our new systems platforms, secondary storage for compliance applications, and our extended interconnect offerings for SAN and iSCSI. Investments we made over the past several years are paying off in our growth today and we plan to continue investing in our business to take full advantage of current and emerging market opportunities that will fuel our growth in the future."