Hewlett Packard Enterprise Sees Unusually High Options Volume (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 32,448 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 135% compared to the typical daily volume of 13,785 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling at Hewlett Packard Enterprise

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 18,323 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $16.96, for a total transaction of $310,758.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,541 shares in the company, valued at approximately $263,575.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.40% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP raised its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.1% in the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 17,733,959 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $301,151,000 after purchasing an additional 695,038 shares during the period. Morgan Stanley grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.2% in the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,879,051 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $275,819,000 after acquiring an additional 634,727 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.6% in the 3rd quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,831,872 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $257,630,000 after acquiring an additional 913,014 shares during the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,518,564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $252,187,000 after acquiring an additional 880,271 shares during the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 10.0% in the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,395,647 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $250,052,000 after acquiring an additional 1,309,878 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HPE has been the topic of a number of recent research reports. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and decreased their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Evercore ISI decreased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Eight equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $17.91.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPE opened at $16.44 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $17.15 and its 200-day moving average price is $16.41. The firm has a market capitalization of $21.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.34, a PEG ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a one year low of $13.65 and a one year high of $20.07. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37, a current ratio of 0.89 and a quick ratio of 0.63.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 9.12%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.38 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were given a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is presently 35.86%.

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.