Citigroup Initiates Coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Citigroup assumed coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) in a research report sent to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage issued a neutral rating and a $20.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also commented on HPE. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a market perform rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 5th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a neutral rating to a buy rating and boosted their target price for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock a buy 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. Finally, Morgan Stanley reaffirmed an equal weight rating and set a $21.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Thursday, June 20th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and six have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of Hold and a consensus target price of $21.31.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Up 2.5 %

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock opened at $20.35 on Monday. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52-week low of $14.47 and a 52-week high of $22.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.45 billion, a PE ratio of 14.85, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.05 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $18.57 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $18.64.

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

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

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

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $1,395,037. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the business. Brown Advisory Inc. grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 10.3% during the 4th quarter. Brown Advisory Inc. now owns 16,915 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $287,000 after acquiring an additional 1,576 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the fourth quarter valued at about $48,291,000. Wells Fargo & Company MN lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.1% in the fourth quarter. Wells Fargo & Company MN now owns 1,317,516 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $22,371,000 after buying an additional 51,311 shares during the period. Commerce Bank boosted its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.0% during the fourth quarter. Commerce Bank now owns 57,274 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $973,000 after buying an additional 1,126 shares during the last quarter. Finally, TCW Group Inc. acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 4th quarter worth about $348,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

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.