Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Sold by Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.

Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc. lowered its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) by 8.0% during the 1st quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 658,811 shares of the technology company’s stock after selling 57,519 shares during the quarter. Raymond James Financial Services Advisors Inc.’s holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $11,681,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Other large investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. PFG Investments LLC acquired a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the first quarter valued at $207,000. Raymond James & Associates increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 88.7% during the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 1,760,414 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $31,212,000 after buying an additional 827,493 shares during the period. Lakewood Asset Management LLC raised its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.4% during the 1st quarter. Lakewood Asset Management LLC now owns 115,089 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $2,041,000 after buying an additional 1,606 shares in the last quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors lifted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 10.4% in the 1st quarter. Abundance Wealth Counselors now owns 28,920 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $513,000 after acquiring an additional 2,715 shares during the period. Finally, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 5.4% in the first quarter. Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Holdings Inc. now owns 3,855,377 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $68,356,000 after acquiring an additional 196,112 shares in the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Up 2.0 %

HPE stock traded up $0.33 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $16.86. 7,951,632 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 11,274,905. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52-week low of $13.65 and a 52-week high of $20.07. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $17.22 and its 200-day moving average is $16.41. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The company has a market cap of $21.92 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.63, a P/E/G ratio of 3.06 and a beta of 1.20.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.45 by $0.03. The firm had revenue of $6.76 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.09 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 9.12%. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 13.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.38 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.08%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 35.86%.

Insider Activity

In related news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 18,323 shares of the firm’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 completion of the sale, the senior vice president now directly owns 15,541 shares in the company, valued at $263,575.36. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently commented on HPE. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Sanford C. Bernstein lowered Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Stifel Nicolaus decreased their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Saturday, April 27th. Finally, Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.91.

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.