Hewlett Packard Enterprise Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.13 (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) announced a quarterly dividend on Thursday, December 5th,RTT News reports. Stockholders of record on Friday, December 20th will be given a dividend of 0.13 per share by the technology company on Thursday, January 16th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.40%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has raised its dividend payment by an average of 0.7% per year over the last three years. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a dividend payout ratio of 24.6% meaning its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Analysts expect Hewlett Packard Enterprise to earn $1.83 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $0.52 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 28.4%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Down 0.6 %

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock traded down $0.13 on Thursday, reaching $21.63. The company had a trading volume of 24,530,618 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,109,320. The firm’s 50 day moving average price is $20.80 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $19.83. The firm has a market cap of $28.09 billion, a PE ratio of 15.54, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52-week low of $14.47 and a 52-week high of $22.82. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.94.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last released its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.47 by $0.03. The business had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.39% and a return on equity of 8.94%. The business’s revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.35 EPS. Sell-side analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Activity

In related news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total value of $493,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now owns 82,061 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,395,037. This represents a 26.11 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.73, for a total value of $5,182,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 1,508,641 shares in the company, valued at $31,274,127.93. This represents a 14.22 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 426,012 shares of company stock worth $8,599,617 in the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on HPE. Bank of America raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $28.00 in a report on Thursday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft assumed coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $22.00 target price on the stock. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Finally, Barclays upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, six have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.71.

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.