Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Gap Down After Analyst Downgrade

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after Bank of America lowered their price target on the stock from $24.00 to $21.00. The stock had previously closed at $18.77, but opened at $17.15. Bank of America currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares last traded at $17.25, with a volume of 4,620,106 shares traded.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 5th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $22.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective 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. Evercore ISI raised their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $18.00 to $22.00 and gave the company an “in-line” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $14.00 to $20.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, June 5th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $21.09.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, CEO Gerri Gold sold 22,784 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.67, for a total transaction of $493,729.28. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 57,081 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,236,945.27. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, CEO Gerri Gold sold 22,784 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.67, for a total value of $493,729.28. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 57,081 shares in the company, valued at $1,236,945.27. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 36,671 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, June 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.51, for a total transaction of $752,122.21. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now owns 111,054 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,277,717.54. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 90,141 shares of company stock valued at $1,874,608. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14,953.2% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 23,189,645 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $490,925,000 after purchasing an additional 23,035,594 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its holdings 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 purchasing an additional 8,560,086 shares during the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.7% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 161,853,093 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,869,655,000 after purchasing an additional 5,777,901 shares during the last quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 336.7% in the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,603 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $90,387,000 after purchasing an additional 3,291,880 shares during the period. Finally, Epoch Investment Partners Inc. purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 4th quarter worth approximately $51,384,000. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

The company has a market cap of $23.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.82, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.80 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.52 and a 200 day simple moving average of $18.45. The company has a quick ratio of 0.59, a current ratio of 0.90 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.34.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) 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 analyst estimates of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 8.49% and a net margin of 6.38%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.59 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

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 paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.92%. 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.