VMware Inc.'s shares slid more than 4 percent Wednesday as some investors locked in profits from a sharp rise in the stock earlier this month.

The business software maker's shares closed down $1.79, or 4.5 percent, to $38.02. That contrasted with a rise of 0.2 percent in the technology-laden Nasdaq composite index.

The sell-off came after VMware's market value shot up 18 percent during the two weeks ending Monday.

"The stock is just going back to where it should have been" before the run-up, Pacific Securities analyst Brent Bracelin said in a Wednesday interview. "There has been no fundamental change at the company."

Cross Research analyst James Gilman also believes speculative investors were seizing on an opportunity to cash out of a stock that has slumped since reaching its all-time high of $125.25 nearly nine months ago.

The slide reflects concerns that Microsoft Corp. is poised to threaten VMware's dominance of the rapidly growing market for "virtualization" software - technology that helps corporate data centers save money on power and equipment by enabling a single computer to function like multiple machines.

Microsoft, the world's largest software maker, recently rolled out its own virtualization product line to undermine VMware's growth.

Palo Alto-based VMware amplified investor fears last months by lowering its sales outlook and casting aside its founding chief executive, Diane Greene, at the behest of its controlling shareholder, data storage specialist EMC Corp.

VMware's stock price has fallen by nearly 30 percent since Greene was replaced by former Microsoft executive Paul Maritz, who had been running one of EMC's division before taking on the new job.