Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Rating Lowered to Buy at StockNews.com

StockNews.com downgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday morning.

HPE has been the topic of a number of other reports. Barclays increased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Raymond James raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Citigroup raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Bank of America raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, eight have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $24.00.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Up 1.6 %

NYSE HPE opened at $21.82 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.99. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $21.42 and its 200 day moving average price is $20.21. The company has a market capitalization of $28.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.20. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $14.47 and a 12 month high of $24.24.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Shareholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 20th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In related news, Director Gary M. Reiner sold 50,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.47, for a total transaction of $1,173,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 104,192 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,445,386.24. This represents a 32.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $20.73, for a total transaction of $5,182,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,508,641 shares in the company, valued at $31,274,127.93. The trade was a 14.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 578,359 shares of company stock valued at $12,380,028 over the last quarter. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. GAMMA Investing LLC increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 57.2% during the fourth quarter. GAMMA Investing LLC now owns 15,521 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $331,000 after purchasing an additional 5,646 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.6% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,561,022 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $31,939,000 after purchasing an additional 68,892 shares during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 16.0% during the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 4,887,662 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $100,002,000 after purchasing an additional 673,801 shares during the last quarter. Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the third quarter worth approximately $1,915,000. Finally, Synovus Financial Corp increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 7.9% during the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 23,751 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,732 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.