SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) _ NetApp Inc. (NTAP) on Wednesday reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $77 million.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company said it had net income of 35 cents per share. Earnings, adjusted for stock option expense and to extinguish debt, were 73 cents per share.

The results exceeded Wall Street expectations. The average estimate of 10 analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research was for earnings of 40 cents per share.

The data storage company posted revenue of $1.3 billion in the period, which also beat Street forecasts. Eight analysts surveyed by Zacks expected $1.15 billion.

For the current quarter ending in November, NetApp expects its per-share earnings to range from 66 cents to 74 cents.

The company said it expects revenue in the range of $1.23 billion to $1.38 billion for the fiscal second quarter. Analysts surveyed by Zacks had expected revenue of $1.17 billion.

NetApp shares have declined 32% since the beginning of the year, while the Standard & Poor's 500 index has risen roughly 8%. In the final minutes of trading on Wednesday, shares hit $42.16, a drop of 9.5% in the last 12 months.

This story was generated by Automated Insights (http://automatedinsights.com/ap) using data from Zacks Investment Research. Access a Zacks stock report on NTAP at https://www.zacks.com/ap/NTAP

Automated Insights, source Associated Press News