Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Upgraded to Buy by StockNews.com

StockNews.com upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a report published on Friday morning.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus dropped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a buy rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Sanford C. Bernstein cut Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an outperform rating to a market perform rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a research report on Tuesday, January 16th. Barclays dropped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an equal weight rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley raised their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an equal weight rating in a research report on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Evercore ISI dropped their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an in-line rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of Hold and an average price target of $17.91.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPE opened at $16.79 on Friday. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1-year low of $13.65 and a 1-year high of $20.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.63. The business has a fifty day moving average price of $16.87 and a 200-day moving average price of $16.41. The company has a market capitalization of $21.82 billion, a PE ratio of 11.58, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its quarterly earnings data 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 company had revenue of $6.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.09 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.38 earnings per share. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue was down 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.10%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is currently 35.86%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Abundance Wealth Counselors lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 10.4% during the 1st quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 28,920 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $513,000 after buying an additional 2,715 shares in the last quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 5.4% during the 1st quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,855,377 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,356,000 after buying an additional 196,112 shares in the last quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.0% during the 1st quarter. State of Michigan Retirement System now owns 495,581 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $8,787,000 after buying an additional 5,000 shares in the last quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1,118.2% during the 1st quarter. MEAG MUNICH ERGO Kapitalanlagegesellschaft mbH now owns 225,744 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,002,000 after purchasing an additional 207,213 shares during the period. Finally, Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 39.3% during the 1st quarter. Dumont & Blake Investment Advisors LLC now owns 17,519 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $311,000 after purchasing an additional 4,943 shares during the period. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.