Commonwealth Equity Services LLC Buys 238 Shares of VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW)

Commonwealth Equity Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) by 0.7% during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 35,613 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock after purchasing an additional 238 shares during the quarter. Commonwealth Equity Services LLC’s holdings in VMware were worth $4,446,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Procyon Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of VMware by 2.1% in the first quarter. Procyon Advisors LLC now owns 3,938 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $492,000 after buying an additional 81 shares in the last quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp boosted its holdings in VMware by 13.6% in the 1st quarter. Fifth Third Bancorp now owns 710 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $89,000 after purchasing an additional 85 shares during the period. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. grew its position in shares of VMware by 75.4% during the 1st quarter. Ronald Blue Trust Inc. now owns 200 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $25,000 after purchasing an additional 86 shares in the last quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company increased its holdings in shares of VMware by 1.0% in the fourth quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 8,531 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $1,047,000 after purchasing an additional 88 shares during the period. Finally, HB Wealth Management LLC raised its position in shares of VMware by 3.0% in the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 3,160 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock worth $395,000 after buying an additional 91 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 46.70% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

VMW has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Mizuho boosted their target price on VMware from $158.00 to $165.00 in a research report on Friday. StockNews.com cut shares of VMware from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on shares of VMware from $180.00 to $182.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Friday. Monness Crespi & Hardt lowered shares of VMware from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating in a report on Monday, August 28th. Finally, Piper Sandler lifted their price objective on shares of VMware from $125.00 to $134.00 in a report on Friday, June 2nd. Four analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, VMware has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $160.25.

VMware Trading Down 2.8 %

VMW stock opened at $164.10 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $70.62 billion, a PE ratio of 49.58 and a beta of 0.72. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 5.06, a quick ratio of 0.82 and a current ratio of 0.82. VMware, Inc. has a one year low of $103.55 and a one year high of $170.19. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $155.86 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $135.74.

VMware (NYSE:VMW) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, August 31st. The virtualization software provider reported $1.83 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $1.71 by $0.12. VMware had a net margin of 9.57% and a return on equity of 162.41%. The company had revenue of $3.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.45 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.99 EPS. The firm’s revenue was up 2.2% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that VMware, Inc. will post 4.46 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at VMware

In related news, EVP Jean Pierre Brulard sold 3,600 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, July 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $141.51, for a total transaction of $509,436.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 103,905 shares in the company, valued at approximately $14,703,596.55. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 40.30% of the company’s stock.

About VMware

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.