Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Experience Decline – What Should Investors Do?

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) saw a notable decline when the market opened on Wednesday. The stock, which had closed at $22.13 the previous day, opened significantly lower at $21.12. As of the latest trading, HPE's stock price was around $21.21, with a trading volume of 1,058,399 shares.

Insights from Wall Street Analysts

Hewlett Packard Enterprise has been a topic of multiple research evaluations. On October 11th, Susquehanna maintained a “neutral” rating on the stock, setting its price target at $20.00. Meanwhile, UBS Group slightly increased their price expectation from $17.00 to $19.00 in a report published on September 5th, also giving it a “neutral” rating. Loop Capital raised their price target for HPE from $16.00 to $18.00 on September 9th, maintaining a “hold” rating. Barclays changed their rating from “equal weight” to “overweight” on September 25th, increasing their target price from $20.00 to $24.00. Lastly, on November 18th, Raymond James upgraded HPE from “outperform” to “strong-buy” and raised their target from $23.00 to $29.00. Overall, nine analysts maintain a hold rating, five have given a buy rating, and one has rated it as a strong buy, leading to a consensus hold rating and a target price of $22.21 according to MarketBeat.com.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Faces 6% Decline

The stock's market capitalization stands at $27.01 billion, with a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.86 and a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47. The stock has a beta of 1.19, indicating moderate volatility. Its 50-day moving average is $20.62, while the 200-day moving average is $19.72. The company has a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62, along with a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise reported its latest earnings on September 4th, revealing earnings per share (EPS) of $0.50 for the quarter, which was higher than the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The company had a net margin of 6.39% and return on equity of 8.94%, with revenues of $7.71 billion, surpassing analyst forecasts of $7.67 billion. This represented a 10.1% increase year-over-year from the same quarter last year, which saw earnings of $0.35 per share. For the current year, analysts predict that HPE will achieve an EPS of 1.66.

Dividend Announcement from Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Recently, Hewlett Packard Enterprise declared a quarterly dividend of $0.13 per share, which was distributed on October 18th to stockholders recorded as of September 19th. This results in an annualized dividend of $0.52, equating to a dividend yield of 2.50%. The company currently has a dividend payout ratio of 37.14%.

Insider Transactions at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In related activities, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares on September 13th, with an average sale price of $17.00, totaling $493,000. This transaction reduced his ownership of the stock by 26.11%, leaving him with about 82,061 shares worth approximately $1.39 million. Additionally, on September 25th, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 83,334 shares at around $19.72 each, resulting in proceeds of approximately $1.64 million. After this sale, he retains 1,758,641 shares valued at around $34.68 million, marking a reduction of 4.52% in his ownership. Over the past three months, insiders have sold 426,012 shares valued at $8.6 million, while insiders hold around 0.40% of the company's shares.

Institutional Ownership Changes

Recent changes in positions by institutional and hedge fund investors in HPE have also been significant. Pacer Advisors Inc. dramatically increased its stake by 14,953.2% during the second quarter, acquiring over 23 million shares worth approximately $490.9 million. Marshall Wace LLP raised its holdings by 3,228.2%, owning about 8.8 million shares worth around $186.8 million. Eagle Asset Management Inc. boosted their stake by 3,537.0%, holding 5.8 million shares valued at $127.6 million. Furthermore, Mizuho Markets Americas LLC opened a new position worth about $105.2 million during the third quarter. Notably, 80.78% of HPE's stock is controlled by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Company Overview

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company specializes in solutions that enable customers to effectively capture, analyze, and utilize data across various regions including the Americas, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, and Japan. The company operates in six major segments: Compute, HPC & AI, Storage, Intelligent Edge, Financial Services and Corporate Investments and Other.

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