Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Rating Lowered to Neutral at Daiwa Capital Markets

Daiwa Capital Markets lowered shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) from an outperform rating to a neutral rating in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday, MarketBeat.com reports. The firm currently has $16.00 target price on the technology company’s stock.

Other equities research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Citigroup upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $26.00 in a research report on Friday, December 6th. StockNews.com lowered Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Raymond James raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and raised their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $28.00 to $24.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Finally, Susquehanna reduced their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Eight analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $21.27.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

HPE opened at $15.07 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $19.79 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 7.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.20. 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 $14.85 and a 1-year high of $24.66. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $21.09 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $20.64.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Stockholders of record on Friday, March 21st will be given a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.45%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 25.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 11,577 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, January 6th. The stock was sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total transaction of $266,271.00. Following the completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 48,615 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,118,145. This trade represents a 19.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.36% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.2% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 32,173,982 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $686,011,000 after acquiring an additional 681,242 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 27,383,858 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $560,274,000 after buying an additional 4,194,213 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 24.7% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 16,184,240 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $345,534,000 after buying an additional 3,208,424 shares in the last quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC raised its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.2% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 15,696,449 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $321,149,000 after buying an additional 921,624 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James Financial Inc. bought a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the fourth quarter valued at about $292,959,000. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.