SG Americas Securities LLC Takes $1 Million Position in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW)

Source:-rivertonroll.com

SG Americas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in VMware, Inc. (NYSE:VMW) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund purchased 6,600 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock, valued at approximately $1,002,000.

Several other hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in VMW. WELLCOME TRUST LTD THE as trustee of the WELLCOME TRUST acquired a new position in shares of VMware in the 3rd quarter valued at $108,043,000. First Trust Advisors LP grew its holdings in shares of VMware by 112.9% in the 3rd quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 1,264,299 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $189,721,000 after buying an additional 670,437 shares during the period. BlackRock Inc. grew its holdings in shares of VMware by 7.7% in the 2nd quarter. BlackRock Inc. now owns 4,444,800 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $743,215,000 after buying an additional 319,201 shares during the period. Johanson Financial Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in shares of VMware by 15,057.2% in the 4th quarter. Johanson Financial Advisors Inc. now owns 222,356 shares of the virtualization software provider’s stock valued at $1,467,000 after buying an additional 220,889 shares during the period. Finally, Trinity Street Asset Management LLP acquired a new position in shares of VMware in the 4th quarter valued at $32,551,000. 16.92% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

VMware stock opened at $156.27 on Friday. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $151.52 and a 200-day moving average of $154.43. VMware, Inc. has a one year low of $128.69 and a one year high of $206.80. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.58 and a quick ratio of 0.58. The company has a market cap of $64.06 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.92, a P/E/G ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 0.84.

VMware (NYSE:VMW) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The virtualization software provider reported $1.49 EPS for the quarter, topping the Zacks’ consensus estimate of $1.43 by $0.06. VMware had a net margin of 67.21% and a return on equity of 61.67%. The company had revenue of $2.46 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $2.41 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $1.56 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 11.6% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that VMware, Inc. will post 4.83 earnings per share for the current year.

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on VMW. Stifel Nicolaus upped their target price on shares of VMware from $150.00 to $178.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Royal Bank of Canada upped their target price on shares of VMware from $190.00 to $200.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. ValuEngine lowered shares of VMware from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 30th. Piper Jaffray Companies began coverage on shares of VMware in a research note on Tuesday, December 10th. They issued an “overweight” rating and a $170.00 target price for the company. Finally, BMO Capital Markets upped their target price on shares of VMware from $160.00 to $192.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Two analysts have rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and sixteen have assigned a buy rating to the company. The stock has an average rating of “Buy” and a consensus price target of $179.33.

In other news, CFO Zane Rowe sold 6,509 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $148.40, for a total transaction of $965,935.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief financial officer now directly owns 121,136 shares in the company, valued at approximately $17,976,582.40. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Maurizio Carli sold 2,075 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, December 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $154.20, for a total transaction of $319,965.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 54,375 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $8,384,625. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 28.80% of the company’s stock.

VMware Profile

VMware, Inc provides software in the areas of hybrid cloud, multi-cloud, modern applications, networking and security, and digital workspaces 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; and cloud management products for businesses with automated operation, programmable provisioning, and application monitoring solutions.