Traders Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Investors purchased 18,451 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 19% compared to the typical daily volume of 15,510 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 83,334 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,758,641 shares in the company, valued at approximately $34,680,400.52. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 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 transaction of $1,643,346.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,758,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,680,400.52. This represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the firm’s 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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,395,037. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA raised its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 67.8% in the third quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 90,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,858,000 after buying an additional 36,704 shares during the period. Nordea Investment Management AB boosted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 12.3% during the first quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 4,723,120 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $84,166,000 after acquiring an additional 517,734 shares during the period. Sei Investments Co. grew its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 56.1% in the 1st quarter. Sei Investments Co. now owns 1,322,885 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $23,455,000 after purchasing an additional 475,397 shares during the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 5.4% in the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,855,377 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,356,000 after acquiring an additional 196,112 shares during the period. Finally, Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 455.7% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 121,204 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,149,000 after purchasing an additional 99,394 shares in the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $22.00 price objective on the stock. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. 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 assumed coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Monday, September 23rd. They set a “neutral” rating and a $20.00 target price on the stock. Finally, Loop Capital lifted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $21.46.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Up 2.4 %

Shares of HPE opened at $20.35 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1-year low of $14.47 and a 1-year high of $22.82. The stock has a market cap of $26.45 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.79 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $19.34 and a 200-day simple moving average of $19.11.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 6.39%. The company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.35 earnings per share. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 19th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.56%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 37.96%.

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.