Verition Fund Management LLC Boosts Stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Verition Fund Management LLC increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) by 312.4% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The fund owned 1,009,267 shares of the technology company’s stock after buying an additional 764,536 shares during the quarter. Verition Fund Management LLC’s holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $20,650,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 24.3% in the 1st quarter. B. Riley Wealth Advisors Inc. now owns 49,511 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $866,000 after purchasing an additional 9,667 shares in the last quarter. Comerica Bank lifted its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 36.5% in the 1st quarter. Comerica Bank now owns 266,326 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,722,000 after buying an additional 71,267 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 455.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 121,204 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,149,000 after buying an additional 99,394 shares during the last quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 39.8% during the first quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 55,388 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $982,000 after acquiring an additional 15,774 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.3% during the first quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 1,006,298 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $17,691,000 after acquiring an additional 155,717 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HPE has been the subject of a number of research reports. Bank of America raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $20.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Loop Capital raised their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. UBS Group boosted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 2.1 %

Shares of NYSE HPE opened at $21.24 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $20.67 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.75. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $14.47 and a 12 month high of $22.82. The company has a current ratio of 0.94, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.58 billion, a PE ratio of 15.17, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.25 and a beta of 1.19.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.39% and a return on equity of 8.94%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.35 earnings per share. Equities analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.45%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 19th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.14%.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.73, for a total value of $5,182,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,508,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $31,274,127.93. The trade was a 14.22 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, EVP Fidelma Russo sold 55,908 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.99, for a total value of $1,117,600.92. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.