Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Sets New 52-Week High Following Dividend Announcement

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)’s stock price reached a new 52-week high on Friday following a dividend announcement from the company. The stock traded as high as $23.85 and last traded at $23.28, with a volume of 7899803 shares. The stock had previously closed at $21.65.

The newly announced dividend which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.17%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 20th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is 27.37%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft initiated coverage on Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They set a “hold” rating and a $22.00 price target for the company. UBS Group upped their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Stifel Nicolaus increased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Friday. Morgan Stanley raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $28.00 in a research report on Thursday. Finally, Barclays raised their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday. Seven analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $23.36.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 10.6 %

The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $20.90 and a 200 day moving average of $19.90. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.10 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.61, a PEG ratio of 3.40 and a beta of 1.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 6.39%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.83 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 83,334 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.72, for a total value of $1,643,346.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,758,641 shares in the company, valued at $34,680,400.52. The trade was a 4.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total transaction of $163,170.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,191. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 426,012 shares of company stock worth $8,599,617 over the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 3rd quarter valued at about $861,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 67.8% in the third quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 90,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,858,000 after buying an additional 36,704 shares during the period. National Pension Service boosted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 17.3% during the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 3,202,752 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $65,528,000 after buying an additional 472,885 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 455.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 121,204 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,149,000 after buying an additional 99,394 shares during the period. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,537.0% in the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,788,154 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $127,571,000 after acquiring an additional 5,629,006 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

About Hewlett Packard Enterprise

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.