Perhaps timely catching VMware Inc. (VMW) would be a good idea

VMware Inc. (NYSE: VMW) stock jumped 1.65% on Thursday to $168.20 against a previous-day closing price of $165.47. With 1.45 million shares changed hands, the volume of the stock remained lighter than its average volume of 1.67 million shares. The 52-week range on VMW shows that it touched its highest point at $170.19 and its lowest point at $103.55 during that stretch. It currently has a 1-year price target of $165.90. Beta for the stock currently stands at 0.72.

Price Performance and Earnings:

Stock performance is one of the indicators that investors use to determine whether they will profit from a stock. The price performance of VMW was up-trending over the past week, with a rise of 2.24%, but this was up by 7.80% over a month. Three-month performance surged to 19.43% while six-month performance rose 40.87%. The stock gained 46.12% in the past year, while it has gained 37.02% so far this year. A look at the trailing 12-month EPS for VMW yields 3.31 with Next year EPS estimates of 8.19. For the next quarter, that number is 1.73. This implies an EPS growth rate of -28.40% for this year and 14.67% for next year. EPS is expected to grow by 10.84% annually over the next five years; however, over the past five years, the company experienced an annual growth rate of -3.90%.

Float and Shares Shorts:

At present, 430.39 million VMW shares are outstanding with a float of 233.31 million shares on hand for trading. On Aug 30, 2023, short shares totaled 4.69 million, which was 1.09% higher than short shares on Jul 30, 2023. In addition to Mr. Rangarajan Raghuram as the firm’s CEO & Director, Mr. Sumit Dhawan serves as its Pres.

Institutional Ownership:

Through their ownership of 49.65% of VMW’s outstanding shares, institutional investors have minority control over the company. Other institutions hold 27.69% of VMW, in contrast to 20.51% held by mutual funds. Shares owned by individuals account for 20.36%. As the largest shareholder in VMW with 6.06% of the stake, Dodge & Cox holds 26,066,650 shares worth 26,066,650. A second-largest stockholder of VMW, The Vanguard Group, Inc., holds 14,895,865 shares, controlling over 3.46% of the firm’s shares. BlackRock Fund Advisors is the third largest shareholder in VMW, holding 12,095,882 shares or 2.81% stake. With a 3.79% stake in VMW, the Dodge & Cox Stock Fund is the largest stakeholder. A total of 16,300,283 shares are owned by the mutual fund manager. The Vanguard Total Stock Market ETF, which owns about 1.71% of VMW stock, is the second-largest Mutual Fund holder. It holds 7,342,035 shares valued at 1.16 billion. Swedbank Robur Technology holds 1.20% of the stake in VMW, owning 5,153,474 shares worth 812.34 million.

Analysts Ratings:

Reading analyst opinions is an effective way to decide where to invest, and there are several opinions available for VMW since 0 analysts follow the stock currently. In the same way, a target price assigned to a stock can also reveal much about its potential. With VMW analysts setting a high price target of $182.00 and a low target of $139.50, the average target price over the next 12 months is $158.57. Based on these targets, VMW could surge 8.2% to reach the target high and fall by -17.06% to reach the target low. Reaching the average price target will result in a decline of -5.73% from current levels.

EPS: Estimates vs Actual

It is also common to use earnings estimates to evaluate a firm’s growth potential and to determine trading strategy.

Summary of Insider Activity:

Insiders traded VMW stock several times over the past three months with 6 Buys and 3 Sells. In these transactions, 11,856 shares were bought while 20,864 shares were sold. The number of buy transactions has increased to 16 while that of sell transactions has risen to 41 over the past year. The total number of shares bought during that period was 530,635 while 307,397 shares were sold.