Short Interest in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Rises By 17.0%

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) saw a large increase in short interest in the month of March. As of March 31st, there was short interest totalling 27,770,000 shares, an increase of 17.0% from the March 15th total of 23,740,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 15,710,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 1.8 days. Currently, 2.2% of the company's shares are short sold.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently commented on HPE. Wells Fargo & Company restated an "equal weight" rating and issued a $17.00 price objective (down from $21.00) on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays cut their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an "equal weight" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a "buy" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com downgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Thursday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an "outperform" rating to a "market perform" rating and dropped their target price for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $17.45.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Aspire Private Capital LLC grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 169.2% in the 4th quarter. Aspire Private Capital LLC now owns 1,217 shares of the technology company's stock worth $19,423,320,000 after acquiring an additional 765 shares in the last quarter. Rise Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 253.9% in the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,465 shares of the technology company's stock worth $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares in the last quarter. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $31,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Finally, American National Bank boosted its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 89.4% during the 1st quarter. American National Bank now owns 1,949 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 920 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company's stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Down 2.9 %

NYSE HPE traded down $0.52 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $17.42. 14,035,134 shares of the company's stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,495,630. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1-year low of $13.65 and a 1-year high of $20.07. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $16.70 and a 200-day simple moving average of $16.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $22.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.01, a P/E/G ratio of 3.22 and a beta of 1.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts' consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 6.81%. The firm had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's quarterly revenue was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.99%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's payout ratio is 35.86%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

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.