Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Lifted to Overweight at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from an equal weight rating to an overweight rating in a research note released on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has $24.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $20.00.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on HPE. Susquehanna reissued a neutral rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Friday, September 6th. StockNews.com upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a neutral rating to a buy rating and increased their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a neutral rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $21.31.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Down 1.0 %

HPE opened at $20.14 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.18 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.19. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $18.56 and its 200-day moving average is $18.67. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52-week low of $14.47 and a 52-week high of $22.82.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The firm 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 firm’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. Analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.58%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 19th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.96%.

Insider Activity at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total transaction of $493,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,061 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,395,037. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 83,334 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.72, for a total value of $1,643,346.48. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,758,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $34,680,400.52. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total transaction of $493,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 82,061 shares in the company, valued at $1,395,037. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 12.3% in the 1st quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,723,120 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $84,166,000 after buying an additional 517,734 shares in the last quarter. Sei Investments Co. increased its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 56.1% during the first quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,322,885 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $23,455,000 after purchasing an additional 475,397 shares during the period. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. raised its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 5.4% during the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,855,377 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,356,000 after purchasing an additional 196,112 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 455.7% in the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 121,204 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,149,000 after purchasing an additional 99,394 shares during the period. Finally, Guidance Capital Inc. bought a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 1st quarter valued at about $931,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

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.