Merit Financial Group LLC Sells 73,903 Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company $HPE

Key Points

• Merit Financial Group LLC cut its Hewlett Packard Enterprise stake by 52.5%, selling 73,903 shares during the second quarter and retaining 66,811 shares valued at approximately $3.0 million.
• Analysts maintain a favorable outlook, with 11 Buy ratings and six Hold ratings producing a “Moderate Buy” consensus and an average price target of $69.80. Institutional investors own 80.78% of HPE’s outstanding shares.
• HPE reported quarterly earnings of $0.79 per share, beating estimates of $0.54, while revenue rose 40% year over year to $10.68 billion. Shares recently opened at $58.78, near their one-year high of $64.25.

Merit Financial Group LLC lowered its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE - Free Report) by 52.5% during the second quarter, according to the company in its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 66,811 shares of the technology company's stock after selling 73,903 shares during the quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC's holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $3,014,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.1% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 173,058,714 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $4,156,870,000 after buying an additional 1,917,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors bought a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 4th quarter worth approximately $901,751,000. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 34,869,143 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $835,626,000 after acquiring an additional 431,728 shares during the last quarter. Elliott Investment Management L.P. boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 47.2% in the first quarter. Elliott Investment Management L.P. now owns 27,421,735 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $652,912,000 after acquiring an additional 8,790,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $433,537,000. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HPE has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Argus upped their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $30.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 3rd. Truist Financial reaffirmed a "buy" rating and set a $69.00 target price (up from $31.00) on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Bank of America raised their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $38.00 to $80.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Raymond James Financial boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $29.00 to $74.00 and gave the stock an "outperform" rating in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Citigroup increased their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $70.00 to $74.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a research report on Friday, July 24th. Eleven research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have assigned a Hold rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $69.80.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, SVP Kirt P. Karros sold 18,785 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.50, for a total transaction of $911,072.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Shares of HPE opened at $58.78 on Thursday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a current ratio of 1.09. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $47.90 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.10. The stock has a market cap of $77.84 billion, a P/E ratio of 54.93, a P/E/G ratio of 0.59 and a beta of 1.42. Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company has a one year low of $19.84 and a one year high of $64.25.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Monday, June 1st. The technology company reported $0.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.54 by $0.25. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 11.91% and a net margin of 3.94%.The business had revenue of $10.68 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $9.78 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned ($0.82) earnings per share. The company's revenue was up 40.0% on a year-over-year basis. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.350-3.450 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.880-0.930 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 2.9 EPS for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, July 15th. Investors of record on Tuesday, June 16th were issued a $0.1425 dividend. This represents a $0.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.0%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, June 16th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's dividend payout ratio is 53.27%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise 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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