Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Call Options (NYSE:HPE)

Key Points

• Hewlett Packard Enterprise saw unusually heavy options activity, with traders buying 96,142 call options on Friday — about 293% above the normal volume.
• Several insiders recently sold shares, including EVP Neil B. Macdonald and Director Bethany Mayer, and insiders have sold 702,402 shares over the past three months.
• Analyst sentiment remains generally positive, with a Moderate Buy consensus and a target price of $27.88, while HPE stock recently jumped to $43.86 after earnings and market activity.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) was the target of unusually large options trading on Friday. Stock investors acquired 96,142 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 293% compared to the typical volume of 24,443 call options.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 24,251 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Monday, April 20th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.01, for a total transaction of $655,019.51. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president owned 32,243 shares of the company's stock, valued at $870,883.43. The trade was a 42.93% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Bethany Mayer sold 6,482 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, May 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.10, for a total value of $188,626.20. Following the sale, the director directly owned 8,018 shares of the company's stock, valued at $233,323.80. This trade represents a 44.70% 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. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 702,402 shares of company stock valued at $18,440,171. 0.44% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPE. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 24.1% during the fourth quarter. Mirae Asset Global Investments Co. Ltd. now owns 215,593 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,179,000 after purchasing an additional 41,896 shares during the last quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 22.5% during the fourth quarter. Viking Fund Management LLC now owns 490,000 shares of the technology company's stock worth $11,770,000 after buying an additional 90,000 shares during the period. Freemont Management S.A. increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 197.1% during the fourth quarter. Freemont Management S.A. now owns 217,200 shares of the technology company's stock worth $5,217,000 after buying an additional 144,100 shares during the period. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in 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 worth $4,156,870,000 after buying an additional 1,917,719 shares during the period. Finally, Merit Financial Group LLC increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 133.8% during the fourth quarter. Merit Financial Group LLC now owns 96,825 shares of the technology company's stock worth $2,326,000 after buying an additional 55,410 shares during the period. 80.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities research analysts recently commented on HPE shares. Truist Financial initiated coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Tuesday, March 31st. They set a "buy" rating and a $31.00 target price for the company. Weiss Ratings reissued a "hold (c-)" rating on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, March 25th. Wall Street Zen raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Monday. Bank of America boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $29.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Tuesday, March 10th. Finally, Citigroup boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $27.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "buy" rating in a report on Thursday, May 14th. 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and a consensus target price of $27.88.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of HPE stock traded up $5.65 during trading hours on Friday, hitting $43.86. 34,160,932 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 17,591,506. The company has a quick ratio of 0.75, a current ratio of 1.03 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.71. The firm has a market cap of $58.20 billion, a P/E ratio of -231.30, a P/E/G ratio of 0.95 and a beta of 1.28. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $28.29 and a two-hundred day moving average of $24.49. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a fifty-two week low of $17.02 and a fifty-two week high of $44.58.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last announced its 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 business had revenue of $9.30 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $9.31 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a positive return on equity of 9.93% and a negative net margin of 0.41%.The business's quarterly revenue was up 18.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.49 EPS. 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. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.97 EPS for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, April 23rd. Investors of record on Tuesday, March 24th were paid a $0.1425 dividend. This represents a $0.57 annualized dividend and a yield of 1.3%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 24th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's dividend payout ratio is currently -300.00%.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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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