Stock Alert: VMware Down 11%

(RTTNews) - Shares of VMware, Inc. (VMW) declined $15.47 or 11.37% on Friday after the cloud computing software provider reported its fourth-quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates. The stock closed the day's trade at $120.52, close to its 52-week low of $116.

Net income for the fourth quarter decreased to $321 million, or $0.76 per share as the company could not achieve last year quarter's high sales close rates. This compares with net income of $496 million, or $1.17 per share in the comparable quarter last year.

Excluding items, earnings of $2.05 per share missed the average estimate of 26 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters at $2.17.

Revenue for the quarter increased 11% year-on-year to $3.073 billion.

The company's revenue came in a bit short of expectations due to a higher mix of subscription and SaaS, as well as linked quarter deal execution challenges, in particular with regard to the volume of deals at the end of the quarter.

For the first quarter, revenue is expected to be approximately $2.730 billion. The consensus estimate is at $2.68 billion.

For the full-year, the company expects revenue of approximately $12.050 billion. Analysts see $11.87 billion.

"Based on the visibility we have in the business, our current view that is incorporated into our guidance includes an impact from COVID-19 on our Asia Pacific results in Q1. We're monitoring the situation closely and have not included any further impact for Q1 or for the full year at this time," commented Zane C. Rowe, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of VMware.