VMware (NYSE:VMW) Shares Gap Down to $149.91

VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW)’s stock price gapped down before the market opened on Tuesday . The stock had previously closed at $149.91, but opened at $142.67. VMware shares last traded at $143.03, with a volume of 426,126 shares traded.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on VMW. BMO Capital Markets raised their price objective on shares of VMware from $140.00 to $160.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, September 1st. StockNews.com started coverage on shares of VMware in a report on Thursday, October 5th. They set a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered shares of VMware from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a research note on Monday, August 28th. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of VMware from $180.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Friday, September 1st. Finally, Mizuho lifted their price objective on shares of VMware from $158.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Friday, September 1st. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $160.25.

VMware Stock Down 4.7 %

The firm has a market cap of $61.71 billion, a P/E ratio of 45.31 and a beta of 0.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 3.71, a quick ratio of 0.87 and a current ratio of 0.87. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $158.97 and its 200 day moving average is $151.21.

VMware (NYSE:VMW) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, August 31st. The virtualization software provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $1.71 by $0.12. The business had revenue of $3.41 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $3.45 billion. VMware had a net margin of 10.48% and a return on equity of 113.34%. VMware’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.99 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that VMware, Inc. will post 4.92 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other VMware news, EVP Jean Pierre Brulard sold 4,966 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, October 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $177.10, for a total transaction of $879,478.60. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 76,832 shares in the company, valued at approximately $13,606,947.20. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Company insiders own 40.30% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in VMW. MetLife Investment Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of VMware during the 1st quarter worth approximately $928,000. Yousif Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VMware by 59.7% during the 1st quarter. Yousif Capital Management LLC now owns 4,648 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $529,000 after acquiring an additional 1,738 shares during the period. Blair William & Co. IL lifted its holdings in shares of VMware by 24.7% during the 1st quarter. Blair William & Co. IL now owns 8,837 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $1,006,000 after acquiring an additional 1,752 shares during the period. Aviva PLC lifted its holdings in shares of VMware by 8.0% during the 1st quarter. Aviva PLC now owns 72,308 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $8,234,000 after acquiring an additional 5,351 shares during the period. Finally, Prudential PLC bought a new position in VMware in the 1st quarter valued at approximately $419,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 46.70% of the company’s stock.

VMware Company Profile

VMware, Inc provides software solutions in the areas of modern applications, cloud management and infrastructure, networking, security, and workspaces in the United States and internationally. It offers VMware multi-cloud solutions, including VMware vSphere, a data center infrastructure that provides the fundamental compute layer; and vSAN and VxRail, which offers holistic data storage and protection options to applications running on vSphere; as well as VMware Cloud Foundation, a cloud platform that combines its vSphere, vSAN, and NSX with VMware Aria Cloud Management into an integrated stack that delivers ready cloud infrastructure for private and public clouds.