Out of the Gate: NetApp tumbles

The stock declined $1.77, or 6.9 percent, to $24.02 in morning trading.

NetApp offered its forecast after one-time items hurt fourth-quarter earnings, which came in nearly flat.

Goldman Sachs analyst Min Park said NetApp remains a "work in progress" and kept a "Neutral" rating on the stock, waiting for improvement in sales and margins.

"We expect NetApp shares to give back much of their recent run and trade in line with the market until we start to see evidence of its investments yielding better results," Park wrote in a client note.

Park said NetApp is shifting its product mix to low-end systems, which is contributing to decelerating product revenue growth, which rose 7 percent in the latest quarter from a year ago. This is down from 10 percent growth in the January quarter and 13 percent in the quarter ended October 2007.