Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Receives Average Rating of “Moderate Buy” from Analysts

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) have earned a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” from the sixteen ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, seven have assigned a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 12-month price objective among analysts that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $21.13.

HPE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Evercore ISI upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $17.00 to $22.00 in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. Daiwa America cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Loop Capital decreased their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $24.00 to $16.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, March 10th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company decreased their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $22.00 to $17.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 7th.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, Director Bethany Mayer sold 6,409 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The shares were sold at an average price of $13.19, for a total value of $84,534.71. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently modified their holdings of HPE. National Bank of Canada FI boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1,369.1% during the first quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 16,279,442 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $251,192,000 after buying an additional 15,171,314 shares during the period. Raymond James Financial Inc. purchased a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $292,959,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $119,067,000. Slate Path Capital LP boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 44.8% during the fourth quarter. Slate Path Capital LP now owns 12,689,164 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $270,914,000 after buying an additional 3,924,039 shares during the period. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 45.6% during the first quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 12,521,303 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $193,078,000 after buying an additional 3,922,516 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 2.0%

HPE opened at $17.69 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a current ratio of 1.29. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a fifty-two week low of $11.97 and a fifty-two week high of $24.66. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $16.05 and its 200 day moving average is $19.09. The stock has a market cap of $23.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.29.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, June 3rd. The technology company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.05. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 8.56% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The company had revenue of $7.63 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.51 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.42 EPS. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue for the quarter was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.85 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.94%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.37%.

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.