Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Given Average Recommendation of “Moderate Buy” by Brokerages

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) have received a consensus recommendation of “Moderate Buy” from the fourteen brokerages that are currently covering the company, Marketbeat.com reports. Six investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $24.00.

HPE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays raised their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $24.00 to $27.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday. Stifel Nicolaus boosted their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $22.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, December 6th. Raymond James upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their target price for the company from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Finally, Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Shares of HPE opened at $21.82 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $28.70 billion, a PE ratio of 11.48, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.02 and a beta of 1.20. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $21.42 and a 200-day moving average price of $20.23. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12-month low of $14.47 and a 12-month high of $24.24. The company has a current ratio of 1.29, a quick ratio of 0.99 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 16th. Investors of record on Friday, December 20th will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.38%. The ex-dividend date is Friday, December 20th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is currently 27.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, Director Gary M. Reiner sold 50,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.47, for a total transaction of $1,173,500.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 104,192 shares in the company, valued at $2,445,386.24. The trade was a 32.43 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, EVP John F. Schultz sold 262,818 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.62, for a total value of $5,682,125.16. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 270,430 shares in the company, valued at approximately $5,846,696.60. This represents a 49.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 578,359 shares of company stock valued at $12,380,028. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HPE. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at about $861,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 67.8% during the 3rd quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 90,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,858,000 after acquiring an additional 36,704 shares during the period. National Pension Service raised its stake 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 valued at $65,528,000 after buying an additional 472,885 shares during the last quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 110.8% during the 3rd quarter. HighTower Advisors LLC now owns 299,743 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $6,102,000 after purchasing an additional 157,561 shares during the period. Finally, Oddo BHF Asset Management Sas purchased a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 3rd quarter worth about $1,915,000. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.