Legato Capital Management LLC Takes Position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company $HPE

Key Points

• Legato Capital Management opened a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise, buying 100,100 shares valued at about $2.4 million in the fourth quarter.
• Institutional interest in HPE remains strong, with hedge funds and other investors owning 80.78% of the stock. Several firms, including Jericho Capital and Holocene Advisors, also added large new stakes.
• Analysts remain moderately bullish overall: recent price targets were raised by Citigroup, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley, and the current consensus rating is “Moderate Buy” with a target price of $27.88.

Legato Capital Management LLC acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE - Free Report) during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor acquired 100,100 shares of the technology company's stock, valued at approximately $2,404,000.

Several other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of HPE. Jericho Capital Asset Management L.P. purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at approximately $416,900,000. Holocene Advisors LP purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at approximately $144,468,000. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 475.0% in the third quarter. Arrowstreet Capital Limited Partnership now owns 3,551,715 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $87,230,000 after purchasing an additional 2,933,972 shares during the last quarter. Ceredex Value Advisors LLC purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at approximately $66,664,000. Finally, Analog Century Management LP purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at approximately $61,449,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPE has been the topic of several research analyst reports. Citigroup upped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $27.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, May 14th. Bank of America boosted their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Morgan Stanley boosted their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $25.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday. Wall Street Zen cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Sunday, May 17th. Finally, Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. One analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, nine have given a Buy rating and eleven have issued a Hold rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus price target of $27.88.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Up 10.7%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock opened at $37.60 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $49.89 billion, a P/E ratio of -197.88, a PEG ratio of 0.97 and a beta of 1.28. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company has a fifty-two week low of $17.02 and a fifty-two week high of $37.75. The firm's fifty day moving average price is $27.00 and its 200-day moving average price is $24.09. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.03.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Monday, March 9th. The technology company reported $0.65 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.59 by $0.06. The firm had revenue of $9.30 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.31 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a negative net margin of 0.41% and a positive return on equity of 9.93%. The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.49 earnings per share. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.300-2.500 EPS and its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.510-0.550 EPS. Equities research analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Stockholders of record on Tuesday, March 24th were issued a $0.1425 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 24th. This represents a $0.57 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.5%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's dividend payout ratio is presently -300.00%.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, Director Bethany Mayer sold 6,482 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, May 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.10, for a total value of $188,626.20. Following the transaction, the director owned 8,018 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $233,323.80. This represents a 44.70% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 264,432 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Wednesday, March 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.18, for a total transaction of $6,658,397.76. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer directly owned 1,837,329 shares in the company, valued at approximately $46,263,944.22. The trade was a 12.58% decrease in their position. The SEC filing for this sale provides additional information. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 702,402 shares of company stock valued at $18,440,171. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is an enterprise technology company that designs, develops and sells IT infrastructure, software and services for business and government customers. Its core offerings span servers, storage, networking, and related software, together with consulting, integration and support services aimed at modernizing and managing enterprise IT environments. HPE's product portfolio includes systems for traditional data centers as well as solutions for high-performance computing, edge computing and telecommunications infrastructure.

A major focus for HPE is hybrid cloud and consumption-based IT.

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