VMWare Inc. Beats Earnings Estimates

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VMWare Inc. (NYSE:VMW) allowed the public to see its accounts for the three months through June this afternoon after the stock market closed for the day on Wall Street. The company showed earnings of $0.81 per share for the quarter, which it refers to as its second of fiscal year 2015. The report showed  that revenue for the period came in at $1.46 billion. On today’s market the company’s stock benefited from a strong technology market to move strongly up, finishing the day at $96.04.

In the same three months of 2013 VMWare Inc. (NYSE:VMW) showed the world earnings of 79 cents per share on revenue totaling $1.2 billion. The run up to the release of this afternoon’s earnings release had analysts expecting much of the same from the company. According to consensus earnings numbers from Businessweek, the company was expected to earn 79 cents per share in the second quarter of 2014 on revenue totaling $1.4 billion.

VMWare earnings show transition in progress

VMWare Inc. (NASDAQ:VMW) is involved in desktop virtualization, a business that may be threatened by the change in the general computing atmosphere. In order to stay ahead of the cloud and other competing standards being offered by competitors, the company, which is 80% owned by EMC Corporation, has been adapting new technologies and making big investments.

Those investments have cost the company enough money to keep its margins much tighter this year, but analysts are still expecting an expansion in profit for the full year. According to analyst consensus, the company is likely to earn $3.53 per share for the full year 2014, ahead of the $3.37 per share the company managed to bring in last year. Revenue is expected to grow from last year’s $5.2 billion to $6 billion this year.

The company’s less than exact stepping through the mire of enterprise computing has caused it some trouble on the stock market this year. Since January 1 the company’s shares have increased by more than 6%, but that statistic hides important details. The firm’s shares rose to more than $110 in March before collapsing down to below $95 by the end of April.

VMware performance may justify spin-off

With its holding of 80% of the company, EMC Corporation holds the future of VMWare Inc. (NASDAQ:VMW) in its hands. With great examples of performance like today’s earnings report under its belt, EMC appears to have a huge amount of shareholder value locked away in VMWare. At least one investors is getting active in its campaign to see the two split.

Elliott Capital Management wants VMWare to be separate from EMC, and it’s making its fight to have that happen public. Whether or not the hedge fund manages to convinces the company’s board to let go of its massive stake in VMWare Inc. (NASDAQ:VMW) may take a long battle to figure out, but it may be the most important part of VMWare’s future.

According to this afternoon’s earnings report, VMWare executives were happy with the showing in today’s report. Pat Gelsinger, the company’s CEO wrote, “As the industry shifts from client server computing to the mobile-cloud era, customers are choosing our solutions because we have the most complete vision and offering for navigating this evolving world.”

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