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Netscout Systems

NTCT on Nasdaq. NetScout Systems sells network monitoring and security software to businesses and service providers. Market value $3.0bn.

Watch this stockFree. We tell you when something changes.

Price checks use the past 12 months to June 2026. Quality checks use five annual reports, the latest for the year to March 2026.

We can't read total debt from the filing, so debt is left out.

Should I look at this?

Not a fit for our list right now

Why it could be worth it

What to watch out for

See Technology stocks that passed both tests

This is not advice. Check the numbers below.

Compare with another stock

Cash yield
past 12 months to June 2026
8.8%high

For every $100 of what the whole company costs, it produced $8.76 of spare cash in the past 12 months. A savings account pays about $4.

Price to profit
past 12 months to June 2026
n/a

The filings do not give us enough to work this out.

Return on capital
five annual reports to March 2026
-2.6%five-year median

Each dollar kept in the business earns -3 cents a year. Above 10 is good.

Quality score: 40 of 100. Price score: 72 of 100. Our list needs 70 on quality and 60 on price.

$40.99 a share, 63% above its 1-year low

Over the past year the price has ranged from $25.20 to $45.28.

Pays no dividend

Prices from Tuesday’s close (6 October).

Five years of cash, in billions

0.3
0.1
0.1
0.2
0.3
0.3
2022202320242025202612 monthsto Jun '26
Revenue
$856m$915m$829m$823m$859m
Operating margin
5.7%8.5%-18.1%-44.7%12.8%
Debt to equity
0.170.050.050.00n/a
Shares outstanding
0.07bn0.07bn0.07bn0.07bn0.07bn

Health checks

  • Free cash flow positive5 of 5 years
  • Accounting looks honest (Beneish)Not enough data
  • Financial strength (Piotroski)6 of 8 checks we could run
  • Profit backed by cash (accruals)Yes
  • DebtUnknown
  • Revenue growth, five yearsSlow, 0.7% a year
  • Buying back its own sharesRoughly flat

The quarter to June 2026

How the business did, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.

  • Sales: $210 million last quarter, up 13% on a year ago.
  • Profit: $22 million, after a loss of $4 million a year ago.
  • It keeps 15 cents of each $1 of sales as operating profit, up from 11 cents a year earlier.
  • Spare cash over the past 12 months: $261 million, up from $247 million.
  • 4% more shares than a year ago. Each share owns a bit less of the company.
  • Sales grew on a year ago in 2 of the last 4 quarters.
Sales by quarter
Sales by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$191m
December 2024$252m
March 2025$205m
June 2025$187m
September 2025$219m
December 2025$251m
March 2026$203m
June 2026$210m
Profit by quarter
Profit by quarter
Quarter toAmount
September 2024$9m
December 2024$49m
March 2025$19m
June 2025-$4m
September 2025$26m
December 2025$55m
March 2026$18m
June 2026$22m

From the company's quarterly reports to the SEC.

Dates

Next results (estimated)
n/a
Last annual report (10-K)
14 May 2026
Next quarterly (estimated, 10-Q)
5 November 2026

Who owns it

5 long-term investors we follow own it, unchanged from 5 last quarter. 315 funds in all.

Jun '25
Dec '25
Jun '26
Largest holders overall

From 13F filings for the quarter ended 30 June 2026.

Big holders and activists

6 investors own more than 5%.

From Schedule 13D and 13G filings: anyone owning more than 5% must file one.

What insiders did

No insider bought shares on the open market in the last 12 months. 6 sold $3m, $2m of it under preset trading plans.

  • Perretta Christopher
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    11 September 2026
    Shares
    7,000
    Price
    $38.00
    Value
    $266,000
  • SZABADOS MICHAEL
    Director
    Sold
    Date
    25 August 2026
    Shares
    4,000
    Price
    $37.70
    Value
    $150,800
  • Munshi Sanjay
    Chief Operating Officer
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    17 August 2026
    Shares
    2,269
    Price
    $39.27
    Value
    $89,104
  • DOWNING JOHN
    EVP, Worldwide Sales Ops
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    11 August 2026
    Shares
    8,000
    Price
    $38.41
    Value
    $307,280
  • DOWNING JOHN
    EVP, World-Wide Sales
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    8 June 2026
    Shares
    8,000
    Price
    $40.29
    Value
    $322,320
  • SZABADOS MICHAEL
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    15 May 2026
    Shares
    4,000
    Price
    $38.40
    Value
    $153,600
  • Munshi Sanjay
    Chief Operating Officer
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    15 May 2026
    Shares
    1,985
    Price
    $38.40
    Value
    $76,224
  • Grasso Alfred
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    12 May 2026
    Shares
    5,000
    Price
    $40.67
    Value
    $203,350
  • DOWNING JOHN
    EVP, World-Wide Sales
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    20 February 2026
    Shares
    3,000
    Price
    $30.00
    Value
    $90,000
  • SZABADOS MICHAEL
    Director
    Sold
    under a preset trading plan
    Date
    18 February 2026
    Shares
    4,000
    Price
    $29.18
    Value
    $116,720

From Form 4 filings: insiders must report trades in their own company's shares within two days.

Warning signs in its filings

Problems the company itself reported to the SEC, in its own words.

None of the serious warning signs we check for were found. 1 thing worth knowing.

We look for five warning signs: doubt it can keep going, weak checks on its own accounts, a notice that its past accounts can't be relied on, a change of auditor, and one customer bringing in a big share of sales. We don't check lawsuits, investigations or debt yet.

We checked the auditor's report, internal controls, restatement notices, auditor changes and big customers in the 10-K filed 14 May 2026, plus the 10-Q filed 6 Aug 2026 and 3 later 8-Ks.

  • Changed auditor

    Worth knowing

    The company changed its auditor (the firm that checks its books) in the last two years.

    “On May 28, 2026, the audit committee (the “Audit Committee”) of the board of directors (the “Board”) of NetScout Systems, Inc. (the “Company”), (i) dismissed PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP (“PwC”) as the Company’s independent registered public accounting firm, and (ii) appointed KPMG LLP (“KPMG”) to serve as the Company’s new independent registered public accounting firm”

    From an 8-K filed 3 June 2026: Change of auditor. Read it in the filing

A 10-K is the yearly report every US company files with the SEC. An 8-K is a short notice of a big event.

What could go wrong

  • Sales have barely grown: 0.7% a year.

Whether the price already reflects the risks is what the deep dive is for.

The deep dive

Everything above is arithmetic on public filings. The deep dive reads the last ten years of annual reports, the proxy statements, and the earnings calls, then argues the case the way Buffett, Klarman, and Hohn would, and checks every claim against the source.

  • What the business is worth, as a range, and the margin of safety at today’s price
  • Prices to start buying, buy, and buy hard
  • The three things that would make this a mistake
  • Every number footnoted to the filing it came from
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What a finished deep dive looks like

Not advice. Numbers on this page come from SEC filings and are updated each night; prices are updated again after the US market closes. The five-year figures are rounded.