Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Stock Price Down 12% – Time to Sell?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) dropped 12% during trading on Thursday. The company traded as low as $43.38 and last traded at $44.1030. 27,945,276 shares traded hands during trading, an increase of 33% from the average session volume of 20,992,949 shares. The stock had previously closed at $50.09.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting Hewlett Packard Enterprise this week:

• Positive Sentiment: HPE’s networking rollout connects EdgeConnect with Mist and Aruba Central, bringing security, wired and wireless management into a unified, increasingly automated platform. This could strengthen its networking offering, though the article does not report financial results from the rollout. HPE networking rollout and valuation
• Positive Sentiment: HPE shares participated in a partial recovery among AI-server stocks after the group’s post-midterm sell-off. The rebound suggests some buyers returned to the sector, although trading across the group remains volatile. AI-server stocks rebound
• Neutral Sentiment: Valuation articles argue HPE may be substantially undervalued following its pullback and raised outlook. These are analyst-style assessments, not new company results or guarantees of a recovery. HPE valuation commentary
• Negative Sentiment: Super Micro Computer’s collaboration with NVIDIA adds to competition in AI servers, a key growth market for HPE. Its new GPU, cooling and rack-scale offerings could challenge HPE and other rivals. Super Micro and NVIDIA collaboration

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently weighed in on HPE. Bank of America boosted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Citigroup upped their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $76.00 to $92.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Piper Sandler raised their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $57.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, October 1st. Wall Street Zen upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a report on Sunday, August 30th. Finally, Truist Financial reissued a “buy” rating and issued a $75.00 target price (up from $70.00) on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Buy rating and eight have assigned a Hold rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $65.44.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 1.3%

The company has a market cap of $59.38 billion, a P/E ratio of 23.30, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.33 and a beta of 1.46. The company has a 50 day moving average of $59.20 and a 200-day moving average of $41.39. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65, a current ratio of 1.11 and a quick ratio of 0.72.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The technology company reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.18. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 15.50%. The business had revenue of $12.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.97 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.44 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.200-1.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. On average, equities analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were issued a $0.1425 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $0.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.3%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is presently 29.69%.

Insider Activity at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, Director Gary M. Reiner sold 17,000 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.91, for a total transaction of $967,470.00. Following the sale, the director owned 65,072 shares in the company, valued at $3,703,247.52. This trade represents a 20.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Antonio Neri sold 250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.44, for a total value of $15,110,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,432,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $86,573,832.92. This trade represents a 14.86% 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. In the last quarter, insiders sold 585,899 shares of company stock valued at $37,270,329. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPE. Foster Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.8% during the 3rd quarter. Foster Group Inc. now owns 5,341 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $341,000 after buying an additional 146 shares during the last quarter. Financial Insights Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.3% during the 3rd quarter. Financial Insights Inc. now owns 5,429 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $347,000 after buying an additional 175 shares in the last quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. increased its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.3% in the third quarter. Oakworth Capital Inc. now owns 8,159 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $521,000 after purchasing an additional 181 shares during the last quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management boosted its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 47.0% during the third quarter. Joseph Group Capital Management now owns 635 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $41,000 after buying an additional 203 shares during the period. Finally, Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.4% in the second quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 15,727 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $709,000 after acquiring an additional 212 shares during the period. 80.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is a global information technology company that provides products and services for businesses, governments and other organizations. Its offerings span servers and computing systems, data storage, networking, hybrid cloud, artificial intelligence and edge computing.

HPE sells systems such as HPE ProLiant servers and HPE Alletra storage, along with networking products through HPE Aruba Networking. Its HPE GreenLake platform provides cloud and IT services through a flexible, consumption-based model.