NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) Announces Earnings Results, Beats Expectations By $0.14 EPS

NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The technology company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.14, FiscalAI reports. The business had revenue of $250.68 million for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $233.69 million. NetScout Systems had a return on equity of 8.16% and a net margin of 10.38%.The business’s revenue was down .5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.94 EPS. NetScout Systems updated its FY 2026 guidance to 2.370-2.450 EPS.

Here are the key takeaways from NetScout Systems’ conference call:

• Q3 results beat expectations — revenue of $250.7M and diluted EPS of $1 (up ~6% YoY), with nine-month revenue of ~$656M (up ~6%) and management raising the midpoint of FY26 top- and bottom-line guidance.
• Product and customer momentum in cybersecurity and service assurance — cybersecurity revenue grew ~9% YTD and service assurance ~4.8%, with major wins (mid/low seven?figure to mid/high seven?figure deals) and new AI-enabled offerings like Omnis AI Sensor/Streamer and the nGenius Edge Sensor 795.
• Healthy balance sheet and cash flow — $586.2M in cash, equivalents and investments, $59.4M free cash flow in the quarter, no borrowings on the $600M revolver, and continued share repurchase capacity.
• Revenue timing variability and order pull?ins — management said roughly $15M of orders were pulled into Q3 from future quarters, creating potential unevenness in future quarter comparisons despite the raised midpoint guidance.
• Supply?chain, collections and customer concentration risks — server/component lead times and modest tariff effects could delay customer deployments, days sales outstanding rose to 82 days (from 75), and one customer and one channel partner each accounted for ~10% of Q3 revenue.

NetScout Systems Stock Down 4.8%

Shares of NASDAQ:NTCT opened at $27.07 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $1.95 billion, a PE ratio of 22.19 and a beta of 0.64. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $27.53 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $25.95. NetScout Systems has a twelve month low of $18.12 and a twelve month high of $30.67.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, COO Sanjay Munshi sold 2,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 3rd. The shares were sold at an average price of $27.23, for a total transaction of $54,460.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,254 shares in the company, valued at approximately $170,296.42. This represents a 24.23% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, Director Christopher Perretta sold 10,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.01, for a total transaction of $280,100.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the director directly owned 40,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,144,656.66. This trade represents a 19.66% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Corporate insiders own 3.82% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of NetScout Systems

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in NTCT. Quantinno Capital Management LP boosted its stake in NetScout Systems by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Quantinno Capital Management LP now owns 10,552 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $262,000 after purchasing an additional 615 shares during the period. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of NetScout Systems by 6.0% in the third quarter. Envestnet Asset Management Inc. now owns 17,649 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $456,000 after buying an additional 998 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in shares of NetScout Systems by 1.7% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 62,120 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,605,000 after acquiring an additional 1,045 shares during the period. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. grew its stake in NetScout Systems by 39.8% during the third quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 4,265 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $110,000 after acquiring an additional 1,214 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank increased its holdings in NetScout Systems by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 138,328 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $3,573,000 after acquiring an additional 1,300 shares during the period. 91.64% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have commented on NTCT shares. Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on shares of NetScout Systems from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reissued a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NetScout Systems in a report on Monday, December 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have issued a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $31.00.

NetScout Systems Company Profile

NetScout Systems, Inc is a leading provider of network performance management, service assurance and cybersecurity solutions. The company designs and delivers hardware and software platforms that capture and analyze real-time and historical packet data, enabling IT teams and service providers to monitor application performance, troubleshoot network issues and defend against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks. NetScout’s flagship offerings include the nGeniusONE service assurance platform and the InfiniStream packet broker, which together provide end-to-end visibility across hybrid and multi-cloud environments.

Founded in 1984 and headquartered in Westford, Massachusetts, NetScout has built a reputation for scalable and resilient monitoring infrastructure.