Hewlett Packard Enterprise Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) saw unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 15,973 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 6% compared to the average volume of 15,032 call options.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPE has been the subject of several recent research reports. Susquehanna reaffirmed a “neutral” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Bank of America upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $21.00 to $24.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. UBS Group raised their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Wednesday, September 25th. Finally, Raymond James upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $29.00 in a report on Monday, November 18th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have assigned a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPE traded down $1.33 during trading on Thursday, reaching $20.80. 16,174,002 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,186,517. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.01 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.87, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.19. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12 month low of $14.47 and a 12 month high of $22.82. The company has a 50 day moving average of $20.58 and a 200-day moving average of $19.71. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62.

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

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 19th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.50%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.14%.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In other news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total value of $163,170.00. Following the transaction, the senior vice president now owns 7,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $163,191. This trade represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,508,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,274,127.93. This trade represents a 14.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 426,012 shares of company stock worth $8,599,617 in the last three months. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of HPE. Synovus Financial Corp increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 7.9% in the third quarter. Synovus Financial Corp now owns 23,751 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $486,000 after purchasing an additional 1,732 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 169.0% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 359,280 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,351,000 after acquiring an additional 225,719 shares in the last quarter. Wilmington Savings Fund Society FSB acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 3rd quarter worth $507,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC increased its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 22.2% during the third quarter. Sanctuary Advisors LLC now owns 337,943 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $7,469,000 after purchasing an additional 61,423 shares during the period. Finally, TD Private Client Wealth LLC increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 155.0% during the 3rd quarter. TD Private Client Wealth LLC now owns 48,323 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $989,000 after buying an additional 29,374 shares during the period. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.