Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

StockNews.com cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning.

HPE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Citigroup upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $23.00 to $26.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price for the company in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $22.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HPE opened at $15.82 on Friday. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $14.93 and a 12 month high of $24.66. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $21.47 and a 200-day simple moving average of $20.73. The company has a market cap of $20.77 billion, a PE ratio of 8.32, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.20. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.99.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.29%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is currently 25.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, EVP John F. Schultz sold 262,818 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.62, for a total transaction of $5,682,125.16. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 270,430 shares in the company, valued at $5,846,696.60. The trade was a 49.29 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 11,577 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total transaction of $266,271.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,118,145. The trade was a 19.23 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Kathmere Capital Management LLC increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 87.2% during the fourth quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 25,483 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $544,000 after purchasing an additional 11,869 shares during the last quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 83.7% during the fourth quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC now owns 36,096 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $771,000 after acquiring an additional 16,447 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,253,035 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $155,142,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,559 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 78.8% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,919 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $19,545,000 after acquiring an additional 401,016 shares during the last quarter. Finally, USA Financial Formulas bought a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the fourth quarter worth about $617,000. Institutional investors 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.