StockNews.com Upgrades Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) to “Strong-Buy”

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was upgraded by equities research analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note issued on Wednesday.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their target price for the company from $23.00 to $26.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Loop Capital boosted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $18.00 to $24.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, December 9th. Susquehanna reissued a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Friday, October 11th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and set a $25.00 target price on the stock in a report on Thursday, December 19th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their price target for the stock from $23.00 to $28.00 in a research note on Thursday, December 5th. Six equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and two have assigned a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $24.00.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of HPE opened at $21.18 on Wednesday. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54, a current ratio of 1.29 and a quick ratio of 0.99. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1-year low of $14.47 and a 1-year high of $24.66. The stock has a market cap of $27.85 billion, a PE ratio of 11.14, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.27 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $22.13 and a 200 day moving average price of $20.44.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,771 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction on Friday, December 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total transaction of $178,733.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 61,735 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,419,905. The trade was a 11.18 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, EVP John F. Schultz sold 262,818 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 270,430 shares in the company, valued at $5,846,696.60. This trade represents a 49.29 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 332,166 shares of company stock valued at $7,300,629 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPE. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,537.0% during the 3rd quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,788,154 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $127,571,000 after acquiring an additional 5,629,006 shares in the last quarter. Mizuho Markets Americas LLC purchased a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $105,185,000. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.1% during the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 27,383,858 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $560,274,000 after purchasing an additional 4,194,213 shares during the last quarter. Raymond James & Associates lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 92.5% in the 3rd quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 4,404,520 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $90,116,000 after buying an additional 2,116,824 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Nordea Investment Management AB increased its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,253,035 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $155,142,000 after buying an additional 1,885,559 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

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.