Maxim Group reissued their hold rating on shares of Vmware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) in a report released on Friday morning. The brokerage currently has a $105.00 price target on the virtualization software provider’s stock.
“Impressive bookings trends for the July quarter, likely driven by 62% y/y ELA bookings growth. Color on drivers and our own checks make us believe most of the momentum is DELL-driven.”,” the firm’s analyst commented.
VMW has been the subject of a number of other research reports. Bank of America Corporation raised Vmware from a neutral rating to a buy rating and raised their price objective for the company from $108.00 to $120.00 in a research note on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus upgraded Vmware from a hold rating to a buy rating and raised their target price for the company from $96.00 to $109.00 in a report on Wednesday, June 21st. Royal Bank Of Canada raised their target price on Vmware from $97.00 to $110.00 and gave the company an outperform rating in a report on Wednesday, May 31st. BTIG Research restated a neutral rating on shares of Vmware in a report on Saturday, June 3rd. Finally, BidaskClub lowered Vmware from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report on Saturday, June 10th. Sixteen analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and nineteen have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Vmware presently has an average rating of Buy and a consensus target price of $105.12.
Vmware (NYSE VMW) traded up 1.89% during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $102.74. 3,478,582 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $93.36 and a 200-day moving average price of $91.99. The stock has a market cap of $42.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 36.98 and a beta of 0.77. Vmware has a 52 week low of $71.81 and a 52 week high of $104.81.
Vmware (NYSE:VMW) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, August 24th. The virtualization software provider reported $1.19 EPS for the quarter, beating the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.15 by $0.04. Vmware had a return on equity of 18.34% and a net margin of 17.81%. The firm had revenue of $1.90 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $1.89 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.97 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 12.2% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts forecast that Vmware will post $5.01 earnings per share for the current year.
Vmware declared that its board has approved a stock buyback program on Monday, August 14th that allows the company to buyback $1.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the virtualization software provider to purchase up to 2.5% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.
In related news, EVP Maurizio Carli sold 11,237 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, June 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $94.66, for a total transaction of $1,063,694.42. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, COO Rajiv Ramaswami sold 20,457 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, July 10th. The stock was sold at an average price of $87.84, for a total value of $1,796,942.88. Following the transaction, the chief operating officer now owns 313,721 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $27,557,252.64. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.52% of the stock is owned by insiders.
A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of VMW. Wells Fargo & Company MN boosted its position in Vmware by 163.9% in the first quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,612,242 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $148,552,000 after buying an additional 1,001,289 shares during the last quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. boosted its position in Vmware by 34.1% in the first quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 103,084 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $9,495,000 after buying an additional 26,199 shares during the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Vmware during the first quarter valued at approximately $338,000. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its position in Vmware by 13.5% in the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 5,329 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $491,000 after buying an additional 632 shares during the last quarter. Finally, NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V. boosted its position in Vmware by 4.2% in the first quarter. NN Investment Partners Holdings N.V. now owns 428,030 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $39,438,000 after buying an additional 17,320 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 21.82% of the company’s stock.
About Vmware
VMware, Inc is an information technology (IT) company. The Company is engaged in development and application of virtualization technologies with x86 server-based computing, separating application software from the underlying hardware. The Company offers various products, which allow organizations to manage IT resources across private clouds and multi-cloud, multi-device environments by leveraging synergies across three product categories: Software-Defined Data Center (SDDC), Hybrid Cloud Computing and End-User Computing (EUC).
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