Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Wednesday. Stock traders acquired 15,973 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 6% compared to the typical volume of 15,032 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several analysts recently issued reports on HPE shares. Bank of America upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the company from $21.00 to $24.00 in a research note on Tuesday, September 17th. Barclays raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and increased their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $24.00 in a report on Wednesday, September 25th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research report on Monday, November 18th. Loop Capital raised their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Susquehanna restated a “neutral” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research report on Friday, October 11th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, five have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.21.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 250,000 shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 14th. The stock was sold at an average price of $20.73, for a total value of $5,182,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 1,508,641 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $31,274,127.93. The trade was a 14.22 % 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, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 7,770 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, October 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $21.00, for a total transaction 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 represents a 50.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 426,012 shares of company stock valued at $8,599,617 in the last quarter. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Several hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Moloney Securities Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $861,000. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA increased its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 67.8% during the third quarter. CHICAGO TRUST Co NA now owns 90,826 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $1,858,000 after purchasing an additional 36,704 shares during the period. National Pension Service lifted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 17.3% in the 3rd quarter. National Pension Service now owns 3,202,752 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $65,528,000 after acquiring an additional 472,885 shares during the period. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 455.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 121,204 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $2,149,000 after purchasing an additional 99,394 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Eagle Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3,537.0% during the third quarter. Eagle Asset Management Inc. now owns 5,788,154 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $127,571,000 after acquiring an additional 5,629,006 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Down 5.9 %

Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock traded down $1.31 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $20.82. The stock had a trading volume of 16,171,532 shares, compared to its average volume of 15,186,517. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12-month low of $14.47 and a 12-month high of $22.82. The company has a quick ratio of 0.62, a current ratio of 0.94 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36. The firm has a market cap of $27.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 15.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.19. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $20.53 and a two-hundred day moving average of $19.70.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, September 4th. The technology company reported $0.50 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.47 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $7.71 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.67 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 8.94% and a net margin of 6.39%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s revenue was up 10.1% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.35 EPS. Sell-side analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.66 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Investors of record on Thursday, September 19th were paid a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 2.50%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, September 19th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is currently 37.14%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company 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.