Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) was the target of some unusual options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 168,186 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 302% compared to the average daily volume of 41,874 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In related news, EVP Fidelma Russo sold 17,001 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, April 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.97, for a total transaction of $475,517.97. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 150,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, April 17th. The shares were sold at an average price of $26.50, for a total value of $3,975,000.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 1,687,329 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $44,714,218.50. This trade represents a 8.16% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 702,402 shares of company stock worth $18,440,171. 0.44% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Investment Research Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.0% during the 4th quarter. Investment Research Partners LLC now owns 21,925 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $527,000 after acquiring an additional 423 shares in the last quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.5% during the 1st quarter. D.A. Davidson & CO. now owns 9,998 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $238,000 after acquiring an additional 429 shares in the last quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.0% during the 3rd quarter. Bleakley Financial Group LLC now owns 42,532 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $1,045,000 after acquiring an additional 439 shares in the last quarter. Compound Planning Inc. raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.4% during the 1st quarter. Compound Planning Inc. now owns 18,951 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $451,000 after acquiring an additional 446 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Essential Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.6% during the 1st quarter. Essential Partners LLC now owns 28,100 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $669,000 after acquiring an additional 447 shares in the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the company. Loop Capital upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Raymond James Financial boosted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $29.00 to $74.00 and gave the company an “outperform” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Morgan Stanley increased their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $33.00 to $71.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Piper Sandler reiterated a “neutral” rating and issued a $63.00 price target (up from $23.00) on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $26.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eleven have given a Buy rating and nine have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $64.65.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

HPE stock traded up $0.84 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $49.01. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 21,551,698 shares, compared to its average volume of 21,318,738. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $17.49 and a 12 month high of $64.25. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.09 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72. The firm has a market capitalization of $64.90 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 45.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.52 and a beta of 1.42. The company has a 50 day moving average of $34.03 and a two-hundred day moving average of $26.62.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Monday, June 1st. The technology company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.54 by $0.25. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 11.91% and a net margin of 3.94%.The business had revenue of $10.68 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted ($0.82) EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 40.0% compared to the same quarter last year. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.450 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.930 EPS. On average, analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 2.88 EPS for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, June 16th will be issued a dividend of $0.1425 per share. This represents a $0.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.2%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, June 16th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is 53.27%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

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.