VMware has turned around some previously worrisome financial numbers in a big way.
Following its quarterly earnings report Oct. 21, the world’s largest virtualization software maker saw its stock price jet up 11.3 percent to $92 in after-hours trading after it closed at $82.65 and reported third-quarter 2013 earnings that topped analysts’ expectations.
The company’s stock price had fallen all the way to $65 in July–or about 25 percent since the beginning of the calendar year. But all that has been reversed.
VMware reported that its third quarter net income increased by 67 percent to $261 million; profit increased 20 percent over a year ago thanks largely to a 14 percent rise in revenue to $1.29 billion, or 84 cents per share. The earnings results exceeded the Wall Street target of 82 cents a share on revenue of $1.29 billion, according to a poll of analysts by Thomson Reuters.
“VMware continues to build momentum globally because we are uniquely positioned to help our customers transform to the mobile-cloud era of computing,” CEO Pat Gelsinger explained on the analysts’ conference call. “Customers are making long-term commitments to VMware to help them liberate resources from their current environments and power their businesses into the future.”
As for guidance, Gelsinger said that VMware expects fourth-quarter revenue to come in between $1.45 billion and $1.48 billion and full-year sales between $5.175 billion and $5.205 billion. License sales are expected to be between $670 million and $690 million in the fourth quarter and between $2.255 billion and $2.275 billion for fiscal 2013. That is right in line with analysts’ estimates.