Needham Investment Management LLC Increases Holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Needham Investment Management LLC raised its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Free Report) by 56.3% during the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The firm owned 80,500 shares of the technology company's stock after purchasing an additional 29,000 shares during the period. Needham Investment Management LLC's holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $1,647,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of HPE. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 14,953.2% in the 2nd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 23,189,645 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $490,925,000 after acquiring an additional 23,035,594 shares in the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,228.2% in the 2nd quarter. Marshall Wace LLP now owns 8,825,249 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $186,831,000 after acquiring an additional 8,560,086 shares in the last quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,537.0% in 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 bought a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 3rd quarter valued at $105,185,000. Finally, Panagora Asset Management Inc. increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 336.7% during the 2nd quarter. Panagora Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,269,603 shares of the technology company's stock valued at $90,387,000 after purchasing an additional 3,291,880 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 80.78% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPE has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Raymond James upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an "outperform" rating to a "strong-buy" rating and upped their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Loop Capital upped their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a "hold" rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Barclays raised shares of 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 report on Wednesday, September 25th. UBS Group boosted their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Bank of America raised 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 report on Tuesday, September 17th. Nine investment 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's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $22.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

NYSE:HPE traded up $0.49 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $21.79. The stock had a trading volume of 6,280,333 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,077,004. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a quick ratio of 0.62 and a current ratio of 0.94. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52 week low of $14.47 and a 52 week high of $22.82. The company has a 50 day moving average price of $20.76 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $19.82. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.30 billion, a PE ratio of 15.22, a PEG ratio of 3.32 and a beta of 1.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 6.39%. The company's revenue for the quarter was up 10.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.35 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total transaction of $493,000.00. Following the transaction, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,061 shares of the company's stock, valued at $1,395,037. This represents a 26.11 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total value of $163,170.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,771 shares in the company, valued at $163,191. This represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 426,012 shares of company stock worth $8,599,617. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise 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.