Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE)’s stock price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Barclays downgraded the stock from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating. The stock had previously closed at $68.81, but opened at $64.84. Barclays now has a $77.00 price target on the stock, down from their previous price target of $83.00. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares last traded at $65.3680, with a volume of 3,928,610 shares.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft started coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Tuesday, September 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price on the stock. Piper Sandler upped their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $57.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Argus restated a “buy” rating and issued a $70.00 price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, September 4th. Wall Street Zen raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Sunday, August 30th. Finally, Evercore raised their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $65.00 to $67.00 and gave the stock an “outperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have given a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.44.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, Director Gary Reiner sold 17,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.91, for a total transaction of $967,470.00. Following the sale, the director directly owned 65,072 shares in the company, valued at $3,703,247.52. This trade represents a 20.71% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.44, for a total transaction of $15,110,000.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,432,393 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $86,573,832.92. This represents a 14.86% decrease in their position. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 551,456 shares of company stock worth $35,271,258 over the last three months. 0.44% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HPE. Irenic Capital Management LP purchased a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the first quarter worth $18,691,000. Farther Finance Advisors LLC lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 45.7% during the third quarter. Farther Finance Advisors LLC now owns 69,745 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,456,000 after purchasing an additional 21,890 shares during the last quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 387.9% during the second quarter. Assenagon Asset Management S.A. now owns 1,240,000 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $55,936,000 after purchasing an additional 985,829 shares during the last quarter. Eastern Bank boosted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 206.4% during the third quarter. Eastern Bank now owns 28,994 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,852,000 after purchasing an additional 19,532 shares during the period. Finally, Sacks & Associates LLC purchased a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the third quarter valued at $1,098,000. 80.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $58.98 and its 200-day moving average price is $45.75. The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The stock has a market capitalization of $87.52 billion, a PE ratio of 34.34, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.63 and a beta of 1.39.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The technology company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.93 by $0.18. The company had revenue of $12.21 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $11.97 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 15.50%. The firm’s revenue was up 33.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.44 EPS. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.200-1.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 3.34 EPS for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be paid a $0.1425 dividend. This represents a $0.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 0.9%. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is currently 29.69%.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) is a global technology company that provides information technology products, services and solutions for businesses, governments and other organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers build, manage and secure data center, cloud and edge-computing environments.

HPE’s portfolio includes enterprise servers, high-performance computing systems, data storage, networking equipment, software and technology consulting services. The company also provides hybrid cloud and as-a-service solutions through HPE GreenLake, allowing customers to access and manage computing, storage, data protection and other IT capabilities through a flexible consumption model.