At a glance
NetScout Systems Inc is worth $2.87B, about 30 times its fiscal 2026 earnings. Revenue grew 4.5% to $859.5M in fiscal 2026, with 11.1% kept as profit; over 5 years it has grown 0.7% a year. It pays no dividend; it spent $321.7M buying back its shares over FY2022–FY2026. The stock returned +46.4% over the past year with dividends reinvested and +8.1% a year over five years, against +11.5% and +11.7% for the S&P 500. At its worst it fell 31.6% in the 2020 crash (S&P 500: 33.7%) and 20.9% in the 2022 bear market (S&P 500: 24.5%), and was back at its earlier high 10 months and 3 months after the lows.
The business in plain English
NetScout Systems makes tools that let organizations see what is happening inside their computer networks and defend them from attack. Its core technology is deep packet inspection (DPI), which examines the actual data moving across a network to spot slowdowns, outages and threats. Its nGeniusONE and ISNG products track network and application performance. Omnis Cybersecurity adds security analysis. The Arbor line defends against distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which try to knock a network offline by flooding it with traffic.
It serves two main groups. Enterprises use NetScout to keep applications, voice and video running well, and this group includes federal, state and local government agencies. Telecom service providers, such as mobile, fixed-line and cable operators, use it to track network quality for their subscribers, including on 5G networks. NetScout is also starting to let customers feed its network data into other companies' monitoring and AI tools.
Revenue comes from two sources. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, services made up 56.9% of NetScout's $859.5 million in revenue, and products made up the other 43.1%. Its gross margin was 79.4%. That is the share of revenue left after the direct costs of what it provides. The US supplied 55.2% of revenue, Europe 18.5%, Asia 7.3% and the rest of the world 19%.
Price history
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NTCT +46.4% over the year to Oct 28, 2026, total return with dividends reinvested.
How it makes money
By product or service
| Service | $489.3M | 56.9% |
| Product | $370.1M | 43.1% |
By geography
| US | $474.4M | 55.2% |
| Rest Of World | $163.3M | 19% |
| Europe | $158.8M | 18.5% |
| Asia | $63.1M | 7.3% |
Latest results
- In Q1 FY2027 (ended Jun 30, 2026), revenue was $210.4M, up 12.7% from a year earlier, and net income was $21.8M.
- For fiscal 2026, revenue was $859.5M (+4.5% year over year; +0.7% a year from FY2021 to FY2026) with a 11.1% net margin.
Financial health check
| Revenue growth a year (FY2021–FY2026) | +0.7% watch |
|---|---|
| Operating margin | 12.8% watch |
| Free cash flow margin | 33.2% good |
| Return on equity (FY2026) | 5.8% weak |
| Return on assets (FY2026) | 4.1% watch |
| Net cash (cash minus debt) | $591.9M good |
| Fiscal year | Revenue | Net income | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|
| FY2021 | $831.3M | $19.4M | $201.9M |
| FY2022 | $855.6M | $35.9M | $285.7M |
| FY2023 | $914.5M | $59.6M | $146.2M |
| FY2024 | $829.5M | $-147.7M | $52.4M |
| FY2025 | $822.7M | $-366.9M | $212.3M |
| FY2026 | $859.5M | $95.5M | $285.4M |
Valuation snapshot
| Market value | $2.87B |
|---|---|
| P/E ratio | 30.4 |
| Dividend yield | None |
Rank among 1514 US companies
Market value at each year end
NetScout Systems’s market value went from $2.88B at the end of 2016 to $2.87B on Oct 28, 2026, down 0%; since the end of 2025 it is up 47%.
Show as a table
| Year end | Market value | Change |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 28, 2026 | $2.87B | +47.1% |
| 2025 | $1.95B | +25.8% |
| 2024 | $1.55B | -0.3% |
| 2023 | $1.56B | -33.7% |
| 2022 | $2.35B | -3.9% |
| 2021 | $2.44B | +21.1% |
| 2020 | $2.02B | +12.0% |
| 2019 | $1.80B | -1.9% |
| 2018 | $1.84B | -30.8% |
| 2017 | $2.65B | -8.0% |
| 2016 | $2.88B |
Price behavior
| YTD | 1 yr | 3 yr | 5 yr | 10 yr | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| NTCT price data to Oct 28, 2026 | +46.1% | +46.4% | +21.3% | +8.1% | +3.7% |
Show as a table
| Year | Price data |
|---|---|
| 2026 (to date) | +46.1% |
| 2025 | +24.9% |
| 2024 | -1.3% |
| 2023 | -32.5% |
| 2022 | -1.7% |
| 2021 | +20.6% |
| 2020 | +13.9% |
| 2019 | +1.9% |
| 2018 | -22.4% |
| 2017 | -3.3% |
| 2016 | +2.6% |
| 2015 | -16.0% |
| 2014 | +23.5% |
| 2013 | +13.8% |
| 2012 | +47.7% |
| 2011 | -23.5% |
| 2010 | +57.4% |
| 2009 | +69.6% |
| 2008 | -32.5% |
| 2007 | +53.9% |
| 2006 | +52.3% |
| 2008 financial crisis stocks fell Oct 9, 2007 – Mar 9, 2009 | Lost 1.4% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 60.9%, back to its old high 17 months after the low |
|---|---|
| 2020 COVID crash stocks fell Feb 19, 2020 – Mar 23, 2020 | Lost 29.1% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 31.6%, back to its old high 9.9 months after the low |
| 2022 bear market stocks fell Jan 3, 2022 – Oct 12, 2022 | Lost 5.5% over that stretch · deepest drop along the way 20.9%, back to its old high 2.6 months after the low |
Insider activity
Form 4 filings from 2025-10-31 to 2026-10-31 (25 read): 0 open-market purchases and 4 sales ($813K), 3 of them under pre-arranged 10b5-1 trading plans.
| Date | Insider | Type | Value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Aug 11, 2026 | John Downing EVP, Worldwide Sales Ops | sell (plan) | $307K |
| Sep 11, 2026 | Christopher Perretta Director | sell (plan) | $266K |
| Aug 25, 2026 | Michael Szabados Director | sell | $151K |
| Aug 17, 2026 | Sanjay Munshi Chief Operating Officer | sell (plan) | $89K |
Who owns it
Large shareholders (13G filings)
| BlackRock, Inc. | 14.8% | Sep 30, 2025 |
| Vanguard Portfolio Management | 7.77% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| STATE STREET CORPORATION | 5% | Jun 30, 2026 |
| Legal & General Group Plc | 5% | Mar 31, 2026 |
| Vanguard Capital Management | 4.96% | Sep 30, 2026 |
ETFs with the most weight in NTCT
| CAFG Pacer US Small Cap Cash Cows Growth Leaders ETF | 1.11% |
| PSWD Xtrackers Cybersecurity Select Equity ETF | 0.95% |
| AFMC First Trust Active Factor Mid Cap ETF | 0.52% |
| OASC OneAscent Small Cap Core ETF | 0.5% |
| DSMC Distillate Small/Mid Cash Flow ETF | 0.49% |
| CIBR First Trust NASDAQ Cybersecurity ETF | 0.37% |
| USVM VictoryShares US Small Mid Cap Value Momentum ETF | 0.34% |
| SQLV Royce Quant Small‑Cap Quality Value ETF | 0.33% |
What could go wrong
- Security flaws in its own products. NetScout provides security and monitoring tools, so a flaw or defect in its own products could bring legal claims and hurt its reputation. Customers who skip security updates add to this risk.
- Falling behind on technology and AI. Networks are moving to the cloud, 5G and AI-driven operations. If NetScout fails to launch new products, improve existing ones or use AI well, demand for its products may decline.
- Government budgets and buying cycles. Part of revenue comes from federal, state and local agencies. Their purchases can shift with changes in administrations, budget priorities and project funding, which can delay or reduce orders.
- Reliance on IT and telecom spending. Sales depend on customers' technology budgets and on steady demand for network monitoring and DDoS protection. Cuts in IT spending could stall growth. Revenue grew only 0.7% a year from fiscal 2021 to 2026.
- Single-source suppliers and tariffs. NetScout relies on a global supply chain, and some components come from only one or a few suppliers. Disruptions, tariffs, sanctions or other trade barriers could raise costs or delay product shipments.
- Strong competition from other tech companies. NetScout faces significant competition from other technology companies. Rivals with newer products or lower prices could win customers, squeeze margins or slow growth in its monitoring and security markets.
Recent events
- Executive or board change
- Executive or board change; Shareholder vote results
- Quarterly results released
- Change of auditor
- Quarterly results released
- Quarterly results released
- Quarterly results released
For income and retirement investors
NetScout does not pay a dividend and paid none from fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2026, so it offers no regular income. Income investors would need to cash in shares to draw money from the holding. Instead, the company returns cash through share buybacks (repurchasing its own stock). It spent about $321.7 million on buybacks over those five fiscal years. Even so, the share count fell only 1.6%, from about 73.9 million in October 2021 to about 72.7 million as of July 28, 2026.
The stock has fallen hard in past downturns. It dropped 60.9% between September and November 2008 and took about 17 months to recover. It fell 31.6% in the 2020 COVID crash and recovered in about 10 months. In 2022 it fell 20.9% but regained its prior peak in under three months. It also lost 32.5% in calendar 2023. Single stocks carry more risk than diversified funds, because no other holdings cushion one company's setbacks.
Questions investors ask
How does NetScout make money?
NetScout makes money by providing network monitoring and cybersecurity products, plus related services, to businesses, government agencies and telecom carriers. Its tools use deep packet inspection to spot outages, slowdowns and attacks, including DDoS attacks that flood a network with junk traffic. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, revenue was $859.5 million: 56.9% from services and 43.1% from products. The US provided 55.2% of revenue, Europe 18.5%, Asia 7.3% and the rest of the world 19%.
Does NetScout pay a dividend?
No. NetScout paid no dividends from fiscal 2022 through fiscal 2026 (its fiscal year ends March 31). Instead, it returned about $321.7 million to shareholders through share buybacks over that period, including about $60.8 million in fiscal 2026. Buybacks can raise each remaining share's claim on profits, but they pay no cash to investors who keep their shares. The share count fell 1.6% between October 2021 and July 2026.
Is NetScout profitable?
Yes. In the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026, NetScout earned $95.5 million, or $1.30 per diluted share, on $859.5 million of revenue. That followed net losses of $147.7 million in fiscal 2024 and $366.9 million in fiscal 2025. Free cash flow was stronger at $285.4 million. That is the cash left after running the business and investing in equipment. In the quarter ended June 30, 2026, it earned $21.8 million, and revenue rose 12.7% from a year earlier.
How has NetScout stock performed over the long run?
Returns have been uneven. As of October 28, 2026, the share price had gained 46.4% over one year. Over five years it gained only 8.1% a year, and over ten years 3.7% a year. Results swing widely from one calendar year to the next: the stock lost 32.5% in 2023, then gained 24.9% in 2025. Its worst fall from a peak in about 21 years of trading history was 62.7%.
What is NetScout's P/E ratio?
NetScout's price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio was 30.4 as of October 28, 2026. That is based on earnings of $1.30 per diluted share for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2026. The P/E shows how many dollars investors pay for each dollar of annual profit. The company's stock market value was about $2.87 billion on that date. It held about $591.9 million in cash and investments as of June 30, 2026. Revenue grew 4.5% in fiscal 2026 but only 0.7% a year over the five years from fiscal 2021.