Wedbush Begins Coverage on VMware (VMW)

Wedbush began coverage on shares of VMware (NYSE:VMW) in a report released on Thursday, October 18th, MarketBeat reports. The firm set an “outperform” rating and a $185.00 price target on the virtualization software provider’s stock. Wedbush’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 22.66% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages have also weighed in on VMW. Oppenheimer upped their target price on shares of VMware from $170.00 to $180.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research report on Friday, August 31st. Zacks Investment Research upgraded shares of VMware from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, August 29th. Barclays reiterated a “buy” rating and issued a $175.00 price target on shares of VMware in a research report on Sunday, August 26th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of VMware from $150.00 to $165.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 24th. Finally, Nomura upped their price objective on shares of VMware from $111.00 to $115.00 and gave the company a “reduce” rating in a research note on Friday, August 24th. One equities research badyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have badigned a hold rating and seventeen have badigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. VMware has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average price target of $158.04.

Shares of NYSE:VMW opened at $150.82 on Thursday. VMware has a one year low of $108.46 and a one year high of $165.00. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.41, a current ratio of 3.01 and a quick ratio of 3.01. The stock has a market capitalization of $58.46 billion, a PE ratio of 39.07, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.28 and a beta of 0.72.

VMware (NYSE:VMW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 23rd. The virtualization software provider reported $1.54 EPS for the quarter, beating badysts’ consensus estimates of $1.49 by $0.05. VMware had a net margin of 18.77% and a return on equity of 20.00%. The business had revenue of $2.17 billion during the quarter, compared to badysts’ expectations of $2.15 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.19 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side badysts predict that VMware will post 4.72 EPS for the current year.

In other VMware news, VP Amy Fliegelman Olli sold 1,500 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 20th. The shares were sold at an average price of $152.77, for a total transaction of $229,155.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the vice president now directly owns 30,930 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,725,176.10. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, COO Rajiv Ramaswami sold 6,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $160.00, for a total transaction of $960,000.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders have sold 78,608 shares of company stock valued at $11,852,164. Company insiders own 29.90% of the company’s stock.

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of VMware by 217.5% in the 2nd quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 1,000 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $147,000 after buying an additional 685 shares during the last quarter. Signet Financial Management LLC bought a new position in shares of VMware in the 2nd quarter worth about $151,000. Los Angeles Capital Management & Equity Research Inc. bought a new stake in VMware in the 3rd quarter valued at about $202,000. Calamos Advisors LLC bought a new stake in VMware in the 3rd quarter valued at about $204,000. Finally, Greenleaf Trust bought a new stake in VMware in the 3rd quarter valued at about $213,000. 19.58% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

About VMware

VMware, Inc provides compute, cloud, mobility, networking, and security infrastructure software to businesses in the United States and internationally. The company offers compute products, including VMware vSphere, a data center platform, which enables users to deploy hypervisor, a layer of software that resides between the operating system and system hardware to enable compute virtualization; storage and availability products that provide data storage and protection options; network and security products; and cloud management and automation products to manage and automate overarching IT processes involved in provisioning IT services and resources to users from initial infrastructure deployment to retirement.

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