Investors Buy High Volume of Call Options on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) was the target of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors acquired 31,071 call options on the company. Thisrepresentsanincreaseofapproximately51% compared to the typical volume of 20,618 call options.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Phil Mottram sold 30,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, June 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.54, for a total transaction of $616,200.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president owned 42,427 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $871,450.58. This trade represents a 41.42% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 68,590 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $18.44, for a total value of $1,264,799.60. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 128,590 shares of company stock valued at $2,436,000. Company insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Lighthouse Investment Partners LLC acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $1,103,000. Paloma Partners Management Co acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $5,522,000. BW Gestao de Investimentos Ltda. acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $2,331,000. California State Teachers Retirement System grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 5.1% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 2,194,641 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $44,880,000 after buying an additional 105,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Elliott Investment Management L.P. acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $381,004,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Down 1.1%

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock opened at $21.32 on Friday. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1 year low of $11.97 and a 1 year high of $24.66. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $19.89 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.29. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.96 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.52. The company has a market cap of $27.97 billion, a P/E ratio of 21.53, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.37.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, June 3rd. The technology company reported $0.38 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.33 by $0.05. The company had revenue of $7.63 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.51 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 9.59% and a net margin of 4.60%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 5.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.42 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, July 17th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 18th were issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, June 18th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 2.4%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 52.53%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research firms have recently weighed in on HPE. Wolfe Research began coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Tuesday, July 8th. They issued a “peer perform” rating on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, July 3rd. Morgan Stanley lifted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $14.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, May 20th. UBS Group lifted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 4th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Sunday, July 13th. Eleven investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have issued a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $22.87.

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.