Apple Inc. vs NetApp, Inc., two Computer Hardware stocks. A side-by-side on valuation, growth, margins, returns, and what each price is betting.
What the prices are betting could hardly be more different in scale and in kind. Apple, at $4.2 trillion and 34 times earnings, is priced as a franchise that will keep taxing its installed base indefinitely. NetApp, at $30B and 24 times, is priced as a mature storage vendor whose job is to hand cash back, and it does, a 6.1% free-cash yield with a 1.4% dividend. NetApp actually runs the higher gross margin, 70% to 49%, the arithmetic of software-heavy storage against hardware at planetary volume. Both return-on-equity figures, 115% and 94%, divide by buyback-shrunken equity and say less than they seem to. The small company pays you now; the large one charges you for permanence.
Comparison updated 2026-07-10.
| Metric | AAPL | NTAP |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $282.12 | $152.40 |
| Market cap | $4.15T | $30.5B |
| Sector | Computer Hardware | Computer Hardware |
| Stage | Mature | Mature |
| Implied growth (priced in) | +32.6% | +17.3% |
| P/E | 34.1 | 24.0 |
| P/B | 39.01 | 22.56 |
| P/S | 9.20 | 4.40 |
| EV/EBITDA | 27.9 | 17.0 |
| Revenue growth | +12.4% | +5.2% |
| Gross margin | 49.3% | 70.1% |
| Operating margin | 32.3% | 27.3% |
| Net margin | 27.1% | 18.4% |
| Return on equity | 115.1% | 94.5% |
| Return on assets | 33.0% | 11.9% |
| Return on invested capital | 61.6% | 34.0% |
| FCF yield | 3.1% | 6.1% |
| Dividend yield | 0.4% | 1.4% |
| Debt / equity | 0.85 | 1.84 |
| Current ratio | 1.07 | 1.44 |
| Altman Z (solvency) | 7.61 | 2.97 |
| Piotroski F (quality) | 5 / 9 | 6 / 9 |
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The stronger value is highlighted per metric where one is strictly better on that single number; it is not an overall verdict on either company. For informational and research purposes only. Not investment advice. Not a recommendation to buy, sell, or hold any security. boothcheck is not a registered investment adviser. Past performance does not guarantee future results.