Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Stock Falls 2.4% – Here’s Why

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE)’s share price traded down 2.4% during mid-day trading on Thursday. The stock traded as low as $58.43 and last traded at $58.8720. 8,641,517 shares changed hands during trading, a decline of 59% from the average session volume of 21,054,373 shares. The stock had previously closed at $60.33.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $54.00 to $63.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, October 1st. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Tuesday, September 1st. They set a “buy” rating and a $62.00 target price for the company. Bank of America boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $80.00 to $82.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday, August 31st. Weiss Ratings upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy (b-)” rating to a “buy (b)” rating in a research note on Friday, September 4th. Finally, Piper Sandler raised their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $57.00 to $70.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, October 1st. Two analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have assigned a Buy rating and eight have given a Hold rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $65.44.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

The company has a quick ratio of 0.72, a current ratio of 1.11 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.65. The firm has a market cap of $78.15 billion, a PE ratio of 30.66, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 0.51 and a beta of 1.39. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $59.55 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $40.36.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 2nd. The technology company reported $1.11 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $12.21 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $11.97 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.60% and a return on equity of 15.50%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue for the quarter was up 33.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.44 EPS. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.200-1.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 3.34 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 16th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 17th were given a dividend of $0.1425 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $0.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 1.0%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 29.69%.

Insider Activity at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $60.44, for a total value of $15,110,000.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer owned 1,432,393 shares in the company, valued at approximately $86,573,832.92. This represents a 14.86% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Also, Director Gary Reiner sold 17,000 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 14th. The shares were sold at an average price of $56.91, for a total transaction of $967,470.00. Following the transaction, the director directly owned 65,072 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,703,247.52. This trade represents a 20.71% decrease in their ownership of the stock. Additional details regarding this sale are available in the official SEC disclosure. Insiders sold 585,899 shares of company stock worth $37,270,329 over the last three months. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HPE. Barrow Hanley Mewhinney & Strauss LLC acquired a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the second quarter valued at $1,027,139,000. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter valued at $773,225,000. Legal & General Group Plc acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 2nd quarter worth about $512,721,000. Elliott Investment Management L.P. lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 47.2% during the 1st quarter. Elliott Investment Management L.P. now owns 27,421,735 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $652,912,000 after acquiring an additional 8,790,757 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 2nd quarter valued at about $322,718,000. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) is a global technology company that provides information technology solutions for businesses, governments and other organizations. Its offerings are designed to help customers build, manage and modernize data centers, hybrid cloud environments and edge computing operations.

HPE’s portfolio includes enterprise servers and compute systems, data storage, networking products, high-performance computing and artificial intelligence infrastructure.