Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Upgraded to Buy at Citigroup

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was upgraded by Citigroup from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report issued on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. The brokerage currently has a $26.00 price target on the technology company’s stock. Citigroup’s target price suggests a potential upside of 20.20% from the company’s previous close.

HPE has been the subject of a number of other reports. Raymond James upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $29.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Loop Capital increased their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Barclays raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the company from $20.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Seven equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have given a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $22.93.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of HPE opened at $21.63 on Friday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $20.83 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $19.85. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12-month low of $14.47 and a 12-month high of $22.82. The stock has a market cap of $28.09 billion, a PE ratio of 15.45, a PEG ratio of 3.33 and a beta of 1.21. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate 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 firm’s revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. Analysts anticipate that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.73, for a total transaction 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 approximately $31,274,127.93. The trade was a 14.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total value of $163,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,191. This trade represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14,953.2% during the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 23,189,645 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $490,925,000 after purchasing an additional 23,035,594 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP grew its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,228.2% during the second quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 8,825,249 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $186,831,000 after buying an additional 8,560,086 shares during the period. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,537.0% during the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,788,154 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $127,571,000 after buying an additional 5,629,006 shares during the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter worth about $105,185,000. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 336.7% in the second quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,603 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $90,387,000 after acquiring an additional 3,291,880 shares during the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other 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.