VMware Earnings Fall But Surpass Wall Street Expectations

VMware Inc. posted better-than-expected adjusted earnings for its latest quarter and said it plans to buy back $1.2 billion of its own stock by the end of this year.

Shares of the company rose 4% to $53.50 after hours.

The stock-buyback plan "underscores the confidence we have in the business," said Zane Rowe, chief financial officer of VMware. The company has a market value of roughly $22 billion.

Though the technology company's income slipped 18% in the first quarter from the year-earlier period, VMware posted adjusted earnings of 86 cents, beating Wall Street's forecasts by 2 cents.

For the quarter, VMware earned $161 million, or 38 cents a share, compared with a profit of $196 million, or 45 cents a share, a year earlier. Excluding certain items, adjusted earnings were flat at 86 cents. Sales rose 5.2% to $1.6 billion, in line with the expectations of analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.

Earlier in the year, the Palo Alto, Calif., company launched a restructuring plan that aimed to cut as many as 800 positions.

Write to Ezequiel Minaya at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 19, 2016 17:45 ET (21:45 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2016 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.