Morgan Stanley Downgrades Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) to Equal Weight

Morgan Stanley cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, Marketbeat reports. Morgan Stanley currently has $14.00 price target on the technology company’s stock.

A number of other brokerages have also recently issued reports on HPE. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 price objective for the company in a research note on Thursday, December 19th. StockNews.com cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Daiwa America lowered Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Bank of America cut their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna lowered their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 7th. Ten equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $20.60.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HPE opened at $13.75 on Tuesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $18.07 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.24, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.20. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a one year low of $11.97 and a one year high of $24.66. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $17.67 and a 200 day simple moving average of $20.12. 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 Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.78%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is presently 25.37%.

Insider Activity

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, Director Bethany Mayer sold 6,409 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, April 4th. The stock was sold at an average price of $13.19, for a total value of $84,534.71. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HPE. Mather Group LLC. raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.2% during the 4th quarter. Mather Group LLC. now owns 7,557 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $161,000 after buying an additional 440 shares during the period. Lakewood Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Lakewood Asset Management LLC now owns 104,990 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,242,000 after purchasing an additional 457 shares during the period. Essex Financial Services Inc. raised its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.6% during the fourth quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 13,396 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $286,000 after purchasing an additional 461 shares during the period. Westside Investment Management Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 0.8% during the 4th quarter. Westside Investment Management Inc. now owns 62,523 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,335,000 after purchasing an additional 475 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Aviso Financial Inc. grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 0.9% in the 4th quarter. Aviso Financial Inc. now owns 54,060 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,154,000 after purchasing an additional 490 shares during the period. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.