Eagle Asset Management Inc. Raises Position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Eagle Asset Management Inc. raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Free Report) by 3,537.0% in the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 5,788,154 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 5,629,006 shares during the quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. owned 0.45% of Hewlett Packard Enterprise worth $127,571,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 3rd quarter valued at $26,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. increased its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 571.5% in the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 1,343 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $28,000 after acquiring an additional 1,143 shares during the period. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the second quarter valued at about $28,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 80.3% in the third quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,430 shares of the technology company's stock worth $29,000 after purchasing an additional 637 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 224.5% during the 2nd quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,853 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $39,000 after purchasing an additional 1,282 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total transaction of $163,170.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now owns 7,771 shares in the company, valued at approximately $163,191. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 83,334 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, September 25th. The stock was sold at an average price of $19.72, for a total value of $1,643,346.48. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,758,641 shares in the company, valued at $34,680,400.52. The trade was a 4.52 % 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 over the last quarter. Company insiders own 0.40% of the company's stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 1.9 %

Shares of NYSE:HPE traded up $0.41 during trading on Friday, reaching $22.15. 4,585,436 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 15,164,177. The stock has a market cap of $28.77 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.57, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.94. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $20.25 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.56. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52-week low of $14.47 and a 52-week high of $22.82.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate 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 the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. During the same period last year, the business posted $0.35 EPS. The company's revenue was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were issued 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 2.35%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise's payout ratio is 37.14%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPE has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Barclays upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $20.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Loop Capital lifted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research report on Monday, September 9th. Raymond James raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Monday. Bank of America upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a "neutral" rating to a "buy" rating and lifted their price target for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research report on Tuesday, September 17th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Nine analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have issued a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average target price of $22.21.

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.