Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Downgraded by StockNews.com to “Hold”

StockNews.com cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research report sent to investors on Saturday morning.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on HPE. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an in-line rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays cut their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a buy rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and lowered their price target for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average target price of $17.91.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Down 1.0 %

HPE opened at $17.00 on Friday. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $17.12 and its two-hundred day moving average is $16.41. The company has a market capitalization of $22.10 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.72, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52 week low of $13.65 and a 52 week high of $20.07.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 6.81%. The firm had revenue of $6.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.86%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 18,323 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.96, for a total value of $310,758.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 15,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $263,575.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.40% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HPE. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.4% in the 1st quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 4,448,812 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $78,877,000 after acquiring an additional 691,080 shares during the last quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC boosted its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 34.9% in the first quarter. HB Wealth Management LLC now owns 94,781 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,680,000 after purchasing an additional 24,504 shares during the last quarter. Vest Financial LLC acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 1st quarter worth about $257,000. OFI Invest Asset Management grew its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 148.5% during the 1st quarter. OFI Invest Asset Management now owns 243,726 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,161,000 after purchasing an additional 145,637 shares during the period. Finally, Greenleaf Trust raised its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.2% during the 1st quarter. Greenleaf Trust now owns 25,699 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $456,000 after buying an additional 803 shares during the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.