Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Downgraded by StockNews.com to Hold

StockNews.com lowered shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report released on Saturday.

A number of other research firms also recently commented on HPE. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an in-line rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays cut their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company boosted their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise currently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $17.91.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HPE opened at $17.17 on Friday. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a twelve month low of $13.65 and a twelve month high of $20.07. The firm has a market cap of $22.32 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.84, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a 50 day moving average of $17.04 and a 200 day moving average of $16.41. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 9.12%. The business had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.03%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is currently 35.86%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 18,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.96, for a total value of $310,758.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $263,575.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 253.9% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,465 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $26,000 after purchasing an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 3rd quarter worth $31,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE purchased a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 3rd quarter worth $33,000. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 180.1% in the 4th quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 1,961 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Johnson Financial Group Inc. purchased a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 4th quarter worth $35,000. Hedge funds and other 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.