Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Rating Increased to Buy at Bank of America

Bank of America upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. They currently have $24.00 target price on the technology company’s stock, up from their previous target price of $21.00.

Other equities analysts also recently issued research reports about the stock. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Loop Capital boosted 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. Morgan Stanley reissued an equal weight rating and issued a $21.00 price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Thursday, June 20th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a neutral rating and issued a $20.00 price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, September 6th. Eight research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and five have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $21.08.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Shares of HPE stock opened at $18.81 on Tuesday. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $18.69 and a 200 day moving average price of $18.62. The company has a market cap of $24.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 13.73, a PEG ratio of 1.97 and a beta of 1.19. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $14.47 and a 12 month high of $22.82.

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

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 19th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.76%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is 37.96%.

Insider Activity

In other news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total value of $493,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,037. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HPE. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14,953.2% during the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 23,189,645 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $490,925,000 after acquiring an additional 23,035,594 shares during the period. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,228.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 8,825,249 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $186,831,000 after acquiring an additional 8,560,086 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.7% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,853,093 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,869,655,000 after acquiring an additional 5,777,901 shares during the period. Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 336.7% during the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,603 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $90,387,000 after acquiring an additional 3,291,880 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the fourth quarter worth about $51,384,000. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.