Smithfield Trust Co Buys 4,000 Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Smithfield Trust Co increased its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) by 20.0% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 23,979 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 4,000 shares during the period. Smithfield Trust Co’s holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $490,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. Valley Wealth Managers Inc. bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the third quarter worth about $26,000. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 571.5% during the second quarter. Hazlett Burt & Watson Inc. now owns 1,343 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $28,000 after acquiring an additional 1,143 shares in the last quarter. Ashton Thomas Private Wealth LLC bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the second quarter worth about $28,000. Financial Management Professionals Inc. boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 80.3% during the third quarter. Financial Management Professionals Inc. now owns 1,430 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $29,000 after acquiring an additional 637 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Partners LLC boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 224.5% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,853 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $39,000 after acquiring an additional 1,282 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several brokerages have issued reports on HPE. Barclays raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft began coverage on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a report on Wednesday, October 9th. They issued a “hold” rating and a $22.00 target price for the company. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday. Raymond James raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $23.00 to $29.00 in a report on Monday. Finally, Bank of America raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $21.00 to $24.00 in a report on Tuesday, September 17th. Nine research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $22.21.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 2.9 %

Shares of HPE stock opened at $21.80 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $28.30 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 15.57, a PEG ratio of 3.36 and a beta of 1.19. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $20.25 and its 200-day moving average price is $19.56. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a one year low of $14.47 and a one year high of $22.82. 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 posted 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 company had revenue of $7.71 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.39% and a return on equity of 8.94%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s quarterly revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.35 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Shareholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were paid a $0.13 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, September 19th. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 2.39%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is currently 37.14%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise 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 completion of the transaction, the senior vice president now directly owns 7,771 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $163,191. This trade represents a 50.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 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 transaction of $1,643,346.48. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,758,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $34,680,400.52. This trade represents a 4.52 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

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.