Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Raised to “Buy” at Citigroup

Citigroup upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research note published on Friday, MarketBeat reports. The brokerage currently has $26.00 price objective on the technology company’s stock, up from their prior price objective of $23.00.

Other equities analysts have also issued research reports about the stock. Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $20.00 target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, October 11th. 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 report on Monday, November 18th. Barclays raised shares of 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 report 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 report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $23.36.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 10.6 %

Shares of NYSE HPE opened at $23.95 on Friday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.10 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a P/E/G ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a one year low of $14.47 and a one year high of $24.24. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $20.90 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.92.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 20th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.17%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 27.37%.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total transaction of $493,000.00. Following the sale, the executive vice president now owns 82,061 shares in the company, valued at $1,395,037. This trade represents a 26.11 % 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 F. Neri sold 83,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.72, for a total value of $1,643,346.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,758,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,680,400.52. The trade was a 4.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last 90 days, insiders sold 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 0.8% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 31,492,740 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $642,748,000 after purchasing an additional 251,076 shares during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.1% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 27,383,858 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $560,274,000 after acquiring an additional 4,194,213 shares during the last quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP boosted its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 18,871,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,507,000 after acquiring an additional 822,722 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc grew its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 16,939,160 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $358,602,000 after acquiring an additional 617,691 shares during the last quarter. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.2% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,696,449 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $321,149,000 after purchasing an additional 921,624 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.