Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) Receives Consensus Rating of "Hold" from Analysts

Key Points

• Analysts rate HPE a "Hold" — 21 analysts cover the stock (12 hold, 8 buy, 1 strong buy) with an average 1‑year price target of $25.29.
• Mixed quarterly results: HPE reported $0.62 EPS (beat the $0.59 estimate) but revenue of $9.68B missed the $9.91B consensus; revenue was up 14.7% year‑over‑year and the stock trades around $21.46 (market cap ~$28.5B).
• Significant insider sales and heavy institutional ownership: Insiders sold about 585,537 shares (~$14.26M) in the past 90 days while institutional investors own ~80.78% of the company, with large positions added by Vanguard and new stakes from firms like Capital World Investors and Elliott Management.

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) have received a consensus rating of "Hold" from the twenty-one ratings firms that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation, eight have issued a buy recommendation and one has given a strong buy recommendation to the company. The average 1 year target price among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $25.2941.

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on HPE shares. The Goldman Sachs Group started coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Tuesday, January 13th. They issued a "buy" rating and a $31.00 price target for the company. Argus boosted their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock a "buy" rating in a research note on Wednesday, December 10th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $25.00 to $23.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 18th. Weiss Ratings restated a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, December 26th. Finally, Zacks Research upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a "strong sell" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, December 8th.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Down 0.4%

Shares of HPE opened at $21.46 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $28.52 billion, a P/E ratio of -357.61, a PEG ratio of 0.60 and a beta of 1.31. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a one year low of $11.97 and a one year high of $26.44. The business's 50 day simple moving average is $22.23 and its 200-day simple moving average is $23.06. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.01 and a quick ratio of 0.76.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, December 4th. The technology company reported $0.62 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.59 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 9.15% and a net margin of 0.17%.The firm had revenue of $9.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $9.91 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.58 EPS. The business's revenue was up 14.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.85 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, EVP Maeve C. Culloty sold 35,958 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $24.66, for a total transaction of $886,724.28. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 50,061 shares of the business's stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.70, for a total transaction of $1,186,445.70. Following the sale, the senior vice president directly owned 26,905 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $637,648.50. This trade represents a 65.04% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders have sold 585,537 shares of company stock valued at $14,255,864 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.44% of the company's stock.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.1% in 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 purchasing an additional 1,917,719 shares during the last quarter. Capital World Investors acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 4th quarter worth about $901,751,000. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.3% in the 4th 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. bought a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter valued at about $381,004,000. Finally, Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $433,537,000. Institutional investors own 80.78% 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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