Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Gap Up on Analyst Upgrade

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after Citigroup raised their price target on the stock from $27.00 to $39.00. The stock had previously closed at $32.07, but opened at $33.70. Citigroup currently has a buy rating on the stock. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares last traded at $34.2480, with a volume of 13,425,693 shares trading hands.

A number of other equities research analysts have also weighed in on the company. Wall Street Zen raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, May 9th. Truist Financial started coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a “buy” rating and a $31.00 price target on the stock. Morgan Stanley raised their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $23.00 to $25.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, March 10th. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c-)” rating on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Finally, Raymond James Financial reaffirmed an “outperform” rating and issued a $29.00 price objective (down from $30.00) on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Monday, April 13th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have assigned a Buy rating and eleven have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $27.41.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, EVP Fidelma Russo sold 17,001 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.97, for a total value of $475,517.97. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bethany Mayer sold 6,482 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.10, for a total value of $188,626.20. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,018 shares in the company, valued at approximately $233,323.80. The trade was a 44.70% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last three months, insiders have sold 702,402 shares of company stock worth $18,440,171. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.1% in the 4th quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,058,714 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,156,870,000 after buying an additional 1,917,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $901,751,000. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,869,143 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $835,626,000 after acquiring an additional 431,728 shares in the last quarter. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the fourth quarter worth $433,537,000. Finally, Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the third quarter worth $416,900,000. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

The business has a 50-day moving average price of $25.72 and a 200-day moving average price of $23.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market capitalization of $43.89 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of -174.08, a P/E/G ratio of 0.88 and a beta of 1.28.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last announced its earnings results on Monday, March 9th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a positive return on equity of 9.93% and a negative net margin of 0.41%.The firm had revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.31 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.49 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.300-2.500 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.510-0.550 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 1.96 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 24th were given a $0.1425 dividend. This represents a $0.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 24th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently -300.00%.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is an enterprise technology company that designs, develops and sells IT infrastructure, software and services for business and government customers. Its core offerings span servers, storage, networking, and related software, together with consulting, integration and support services aimed at modernizing and managing enterprise IT environments. HPE’s product portfolio includes systems for traditional data centers as well as solutions for high-performance computing, edge computing and telecommunications infrastructure.

A major focus for HPE is hybrid cloud and consumption-based IT.