Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Cut to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday.

HPE has been the topic of several other reports. UBS Group upped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Loop Capital upped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $18.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, December 9th. Citigroup raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Barclays upped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Raymond James raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price target for the company from $23.00 to $29.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

HPE stock opened at $21.82 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.70 billion, a PE ratio of 11.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.20. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12-month low of $14.47 and a 12-month high of $24.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $21.42 and its 200 day simple moving average is $20.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.38%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is presently 27.37%.

Insider Activity at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the 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 sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,771 shares in the company, valued at $163,191. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was 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 owns 1,508,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $31,274,127.93. This trade represents a 14.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 578,359 shares of company stock valued at $12,380,028. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 0.8% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,492,740 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $642,748,000 after purchasing an additional 251,076 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 27,383,858 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $560,274,000 after purchasing an additional 4,194,213 shares in the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.6% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 18,871,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,507,000 after purchasing an additional 822,722 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.8% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 16,939,160 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $358,602,000 after purchasing an additional 617,691 shares in the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,696,449 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $321,149,000 after purchasing an additional 921,624 shares in the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.