VMware (NYSE:VMW) was downgraded by stock analysts at Citigroup from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report released on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports.
Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Zacks Investment Research lowered shares of VMware from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, October 16th. Barclays restated a “buy” rating on shares of VMware in a report on Friday, November 10th. Cowen upgraded shares of VMware from a “market perform” rating to an “outperform” rating in a report on Thursday, January 11th. KeyCorp upgraded shares of VMware from a “sector weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and set a $142.00 price target for the company in a report on Monday, December 18th. Finally, Royal Bank of Canada boosted their price target on shares of VMware to $150.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a report on Wednesday, January 17th. They noted that the move was a valuation call. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and twenty have assigned a buy rating to the company. The company has a consensus rating of “Buy” and an average target price of $130.84.
VMware (NYSE:VMW) traded down $6.32 during trading on Monday, reaching $116.40. 3,340,000 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 3,440,000. The stock has a market cap of $46,930.00, a PE ratio of 33.26, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.55 and a beta of 0.81. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.51, a quick ratio of 2.86 and a current ratio of 2.86. VMware has a 12 month low of $85.45 and a 12 month high of $165.00.
In other VMware news, COO Sanjay Poonen sold 2,764 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $118.50, for a total transaction of $327,534.00. Following the sale, the chief operating officer now owns 189,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $22,442,833.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Maurizio Carli sold 2,581 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, January 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $129.88, for a total transaction of $335,220.28. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 38,726 shares of company stock valued at $4,774,927. 34.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in VMW. APG Asset Management N.V. grew its position in VMware by 302.3% during the 3rd quarter. APG Asset Management N.V. now owns 2,044,921 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $223,285,000 after purchasing an additional 1,536,600 shares during the last quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC grew its position in VMware by 6,030.7% during the 2nd quarter. Janus Henderson Group PLC now owns 806,433 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $70,506,000 after purchasing an additional 793,279 shares during the last quarter. Koch Industries Inc. grew its position in VMware by 16,537.3% during the 2nd quarter. Koch Industries Inc. now owns 479,821 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $474,000 after purchasing an additional 476,937 shares during the last quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA grew its position in VMware by 789.8% during the 3rd quarter. BNP Paribas Arbitrage SA now owns 317,151 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $34,630,000 after purchasing an additional 281,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Virginia Retirement Systems ET AL purchased a new stake in VMware during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $27,003,000. 22.45% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.
VMware Company Profile
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).
