UPDATE: Cantor Fitzgerald Initiates Coverage on VMware on Limited Upside Potential

In a report published Friday, Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Brian J. White initiated coverage on VMware VMW with a Hold rating and $86.00 price target. In the report, Cantor Fitzgerald noted, “We are initiating coverage of VMware with a HOLD rating and 12-month price target of $86.00. VMware is recognized as the #1 virtualization software vendor in the world, and EMC owns an 80% stake in the company. After dominating the server virtualization software market over the years, VMware's vision of a software-defined data center has expanded the company's growth opportunities with the virtualization of both networking and storage. We believe this transition will take time and VMware is already trading at a CY:14 P/E (ex-cash) of 20.3x, which we believe affords limited upside potential.” VMware closed on Thursday at $88.89.