Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the ten ratings firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month price target among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $17.45.

Several equities analysts recently commented on HPE shares. Stifel Nicolaus reduced their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Wells Fargo & Company reaffirmed an “equal weight” rating and set a $17.00 target price (down previously from $21.00) on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 11.4% during the first quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 21,840 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $387,000 after purchasing an additional 2,228 shares in the last quarter. American National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 89.4% in the first quarter. American National Bank now owns 1,949 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 920 shares in the last quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise lifted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14.1% in the first quarter. Banque Cantonale Vaudoise now owns 292,040 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $5,178,000 after buying an additional 36,048 shares in the last quarter. Czech National Bank lifted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.8% in the first quarter. Czech National Bank now owns 228,736 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $4,055,000 after buying an additional 4,050 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Perpetual Ltd lifted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.2% in the first quarter. Perpetual Ltd now owns 42,818 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $759,000 after buying an additional 1,327 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock opened at $17.94 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $16.66 and its 200 day simple moving average is $16.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.32 billion, a PE ratio of 12.37, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1-year low of $13.65 and a 1-year high of $20.07.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $6.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 9.12%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th will be issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.90%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, March 14th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is 35.86%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

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.