Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Gap Up After Dividend Announcement

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock had previously closed at $21.76, but opened at $22.60. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares last traded at $22.18, with a volume of 8,399,302 shares.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, December 20th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.37%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages recently commented on HPE. Bank of America upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the company from $23.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Friday. Barclays upped their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $22.00 target price on the stock. Seven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.36.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

The company has a market capitalization of $31.11 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $20.83 and its 200-day simple moving average is $19.85. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.39% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total transaction of $163,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,191. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.73, for a total transaction of $5,182,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,508,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,274,127.93. This represents a 14.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14,953.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 23,189,645 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $490,925,000 after buying an additional 23,035,594 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP raised its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,228.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 8,825,249 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $186,831,000 after purchasing an additional 8,560,086 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,537.0% during the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,788,154 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $127,571,000 after purchasing an additional 5,629,006 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the third quarter worth $105,185,000. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 336.7% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,603 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $90,387,000 after purchasing an additional 3,291,880 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company provides solutions that allow customers to capture, analyze, and act upon data seamlessly in the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Asia Pacific, and Japan. It operates in six segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services, and Corporate Investments and Other.