Tag Archives: emc

VMware Cloud Business Lifts Q2 Outlook Above Expectations; Stock Up

Investors rushed to buy VMware ( VMW ) shares early in the stock market today , driving the price up 14% to a four-month high above 59, after the virtualization software leader raised its guidance late Tuesday. The company increased adjusted earnings guidance for the year by 2 cents to a range of $4.09 to $4.18 vs. the $4.11 modeled by Wall Street. It also announced plans to buy back $1.2 billion worth of shares in fiscal 2016, “in light of the depressed valuation” of the stock, reported William Blair analyst Jason Ader in a Wednesday research note. Shares had fallen 32% for the past 12 months as of Tuesday’s close. Majority owner EMC ( EMC ), meanwhile, was up nearly 3% in midday trading Wednesday after it reported Q1 revenue grew 5% to $1.59 billion, ahead of Wall Street consensus by $14 million, while non-GAAP EPS flattened to 86 cents, 2 cents better than analysts had expected. EMC is in the process of being acquired by privately held Dell. VMware’s virtualization software lets users see and manipulate multiple operating systems simultaneously from one computer. William Blair’s Ader noted that VMware’s traditional license revenue of $572 million in Q1 was up 1% in constant currency, although it fell 1% after foreign-exchange effects. VMWare’s growth was in the cloud, its multiyear strategic destination. “Q1 was a good start to 2016,” VMware CEO Pat Gelsinger said in the company’s earnings release. “We made solid progress with our strategic goal of building momentum for our new growth businesses and in the cloud. We continue to see momentum across our portfolio of growth products and businesses, including NSX, Virtual SAN and End-User Computing.” In February, VMware partnered with IBM ( IBM ) to allow enterprise customers to extend their workloads to the cloud from on-premise software-defined data centers. For the current Q2, VMware guided non-GAAP EPS to 94 cents to 97 cents. It guided Q2 total revenue up 4% to 7% to $1.66 billion to $1.71 billion. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect 94 cents per share minus items on $1.66 billion. William Blair reiterated its market perform rating on VMware stock but doesn’t have a price target. Summit Research Partners analyst Srini Nandury maintained a hold rating, but he raised his price target on the name to 45 from 40 “to reflect solid execution and the recent multiple expansion experienced across the tech landscape following the January/February sell-off. “Despite a slew of executive departures … we believe the company needs to execute well on its growth areas.” FBN Securities analyst Shebly Seyrafi reiterated an outperform rating and raised his VMware price target to 70 from 60. “We continue to like the company’s strong (free cash flow) yield,” he said in a research note.

Here’s Why IBM Fell Despite A Solid Q1 Earnings Beat

IBM ( IBM ) closed down 5.6% at 144 Tuesday, following a first-quarter earnings report late Monday that beat estimates but still left room for concern. IBM has been undergoing a major transition, shedding older technologies while making a concerted push into growth areas such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, security and mobile computing — areas it calls strategic imperatives. The transition helps explain why revenue growth has declined each quarter for the past four years. In its Q1 earnings results, IBM reported revenue of $18.7 billion, down 4.6% from the year-earlier quarter but edging the Wall Street consensus estimate of $18.3 billion. Revenue from strategic imperatives rose 14%. Total cloud revenue rose 34%. Earnings per share ex items of $2.35 easily beat views of $2.09, as polled by Thomson Reuters, but were down 19% and marked the fourth quarter in a row of EPS declines. IBM stock fell in the stock market today  presumably on the view that Q2 expectations are below estimates. IBM does not provide formal quarterly guidance, but its implied EPS guidance of $2.85 for Q2 is below the consensus estimate of 3.01. Despite the Q1 beat, IBM did not increase but instead maintained its full-year earnings outlook. IBD’s Take: How healthy is IBM’s stock and how does it stack up vs. rivals? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani maintained a sector perform rating on IBM stock, and a price target of 155. “We believe the competitive challenges are emerging from companies seeking to build a business model similar to IBM’s, notably Hewlett-Packard Enterprise ( HPE ), Cisco ( CSCO ), Oracle ( ORCL ), EMC ( EMC ), and Dell,” he wrote. Of these competitors, he said, Hewlett-Packard is the closest. Another is Cisco. ‘Attempting To Recreate The IBM Model’ “Beyond Hewlett-Packard and Cisco, there are also others attempting to recreate the IBM model,” he wrote. A harsher report on IBM came from Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha, who reiterated an underperform rating and a price target of 110 on IBM stock. “We believe the quality of earnings was again low and the manner in which IBM has chosen to manage its business seems unsustainable,” Garcha wrote. “We believe the secular and structural challenges facing IBM remain, and specifically see limited improvement in Services and Software margins.” UBS analyst Steven Milunovich maintained a neutral rating on IBM but raised his price target to 150 from 132. “The quarter was mixed with revenue and EPS beating due to currency improvement, acquisitions, and the Japan tax rebate,” he wrote. “We give IBM credit for changing the narrative,” with an emphasis on becoming a leader in the new category of Cognitive Computing, which includes its Watson computer business, he wrote. Drexel Hamilton raised its revenue forecast, maintained its EPS projection and raised the price target to 166 from 160.

Here’s Why IBM Is Falling Despite A Solid Q1 Earnings Beat

IBM ( IBM ) was trading down Tuesday, following a first-quarter earnings report late Monday that beat estimates but still left room for concern. IBM has been undergoing a major transition, shedding older technologies while making a concerted push into growth areas such as cloud computing, Big Data analytics, security and mobile computing — areas it calls strategic imperatives. The transition helps explain why revenue growth has declined each quarter for the past four years. In its Q1 earnings results, IBM reported revenue of $18.7 billion, down 4.6% from the year-earlier quarter but edging the Wall Street consensus estimate of $18.3 billion. Revenue from strategic imperatives rose 14%. Total cloud revenue rose 34%. Earnings per share ex items of $2.35 easily beat views of $2.09, as polled by Thomson Reuters, but were down 19% and marked the fourth quarter in a row of EPS declines. IBM stock was down more than 6%, near 143, in afternoon trading in the stock market today , presumably on the view that Q2 expectations are below estimates. IBM does not provide formal quarterly guidance, but its implied EPS guidance of $2.85 for Q2 is below the consensus estimate of 3.01. Despite the Q1 beat, IBM did not increase but instead maintained its full-year earnings outlook. IBD’s Take: How healthy is IBM’s stock and how does it stack up vs. rivals? Find out at IBD Stock Checkup RBC Capital Markets analyst Amit Daryanani maintained a sector perform rating on IBM stock, and a price target of 155. “We believe the competitive challenges are emerging from companies seeking to build a business model similar to IBM’s, notably Hewlett-Packard Enterprise ( HPE ), Cisco ( CSCO ), Oracle ( ORCL ), EMC ( EMC ), and Dell,” he wrote. Of these competitors, he said, Hewlett-Packard is the closest. Another is Cisco. ‘Attempting To Recreate The IBM Model’ “Beyond Hewlett-Packard and Cisco, there are also others attempting to recreate the IBM model,” he wrote. A harsher report on IBM came from Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha, who reiterated an underperform rating and a price target of 110 on IBM stock. “We believe the quality of earnings was again low and the manner in which IBM has chosen to manage its business seems unsustainable,” Garcha wrote. “We believe the secular and structural challenges facing IBM remain, and specifically see limited improvement in Services and Software margins.” UBS analyst Steven Milunovich maintained a neutral rating on IBM but raised his price target to 150 from 132. “The quarter was mixed with revenue and EPS beating due to currency improvement, acquisitions, and the Japan tax rebate,” he wrote. “We give IBM credit for changing the narrative,” with an emphasis on becoming a leader in the new category of Cognitive Computing, which includes its Watson computer business, he wrote. Drexel Hamilton raised its revenue forecast, maintained its EPS projection and raised the price target to 166 from 160.