First Trust Advisors LP Sells 10,533 Shares of VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW)

Posted by Defense World Staff on May 26th, 2023

First Trust Advisors LP cut its holdings in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW – Get Rating) by 12.8% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 71,978 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock after selling 10,533 shares during the quarter. First Trust Advisors LP’s holdings in VMware were worth $8,827,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Accurate Wealth Management LLC bought a new position in shares of VMware in the fourth quarter worth $27,000. Zions Bancorporation N.A. increased its holdings in VMware by 140.2% in the first quarter. Zions Bancorporation N.A. now owns 233 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 136 shares in the last quarter. James Investment Research Inc. bought a new stake in VMware in the fourth quarter worth approximately $29,000. Romano Brothers AND Company bought a new stake in VMware in the fourth quarter worth approximately $32,000. Finally, Raleigh Capital Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of VMware during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $39,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 45.85% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Piper Sandler cut their target price on VMware from $142.50 to $125.00 in a research report on Thursday, April 27th. BMO Capital Markets cut their price target on VMware from $142.50 to $139.00 and set a “market perform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, March 6th. 1-800-FLOWERS.COM reissued a “maintains” rating on shares of VMware in a report on Thursday, April 27th. UBS Group raised their price target on VMware from $131.00 to $147.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, February 7th. Finally, StockNews.com began coverage on VMware in a report on Thursday, May 18th. They issued a “strong-buy” rating on the stock. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, VMware presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $137.70.

Insider Activity at VMware

In related news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 35,715 shares of VMware stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, April 3rd. The stock was sold at an average price of $124.53, for a total transaction of $4,447,588.95. Following the sale, the chief financial officer now directly owns 174,162 shares in the company, valued at $21,688,393.86. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 40.30% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

VMware Price Performance

VMW opened at $127.86 on Friday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $123.77 and its 200 day simple moving average is $121.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 6.15, a current ratio of 0.83 and a quick ratio of 0.83. VMware, Inc. has a 1 year low of $103.55 and a 1 year high of $132.15. The firm has a market cap of $54.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 41.51, a PEG ratio of 2.82 and a beta of 0.72.

VMware (NYSE:VMW – Get Rating) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, March 2nd. The virtualization software provider reported $1.49 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.36 by $0.13. VMware had a return on equity of 327.30% and a net margin of 9.84%. The firm had revenue of $3.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $3.64 billion. As a group, analysts predict that VMware, Inc. will post 4.89 earnings per share for the current year.

VMware Company Profile

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VMware, Inc engages in the provision of cloud infrastructure and business mobility. Its products include Software-Defined Data Center, Hybrid Cloud Computing, and End-User Computing. It supports modernizing data centers, integrating public clouds, empowering digital workspaces and transforming security.