NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) Issues Quarterly Earnings Results

NetScout Systems (NASDAQ:NTCT) announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday. The technology company reported $1.00 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.86 by $0.14, FiscalAI reports. The company had revenue of $250.68 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $233.69 million. NetScout Systems had a net margin of 10.38% and a return on equity of 8.16%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down .5% compared to the same quarter last year. 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 Performance

Shares of NTCT traded down $0.93 during mid-day trading on Thursday, reaching $27.49. 316,599 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 432,251. The business’s 50-day moving average price is $27.52 and its 200-day moving average price is $25.94. The stock has a market capitalization of $1.98 billion, a P/E ratio of 22.56 and a beta of 0.64. NetScout Systems has a 12 month low of $18.12 and a 12 month high of $30.67.

Analyst Ratings Changes

NTCT has been the topic of several research reports. Royal Bank Of Canada cut their price objective on NetScout Systems from $31.00 to $29.00 and set a “sector perform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, January 5th. Weiss Ratings reiterated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of NetScout Systems in a report on Monday, December 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating and two have given a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $31.00.

Insider Activity at NetScout Systems

In other NetScout Systems news, Director Christopher Perretta sold 10,000 shares of NetScout Systems stock in a transaction 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 sale, the director owned 40,866 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,144,656.66. The trade was a 19.66% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, COO Sanjay Munshi sold 2,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.23, for a total value of $54,460.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief operating officer directly owned 6,254 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $170,296.42. The trade was a 24.23% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. 3.82% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of NetScout Systems

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Prelude Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in NetScout Systems in the 3rd quarter valued at about $301,000. Schonfeld Strategic Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of NetScout Systems in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $253,000. Freestone Grove Partners LP acquired a new stake in NetScout Systems during the third quarter valued at approximately $306,000. Inceptionr LLC bought a new stake in NetScout Systems during the third quarter worth approximately $214,000. Finally, EP Wealth Advisors LLC acquired a new position in NetScout Systems in the second quarter worth approximately $202,000. 91.64% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

About NetScout Systems

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.