Insider Selling: Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) SVP Sells 18,323 Shares of Stock

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) SVP Jeremy Cox sold 18,323 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, April 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $16.96, for a total transaction of $310,758.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,541 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $263,575.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

HPE traded up $0.04 during trading on Thursday, hitting $16.97. 8,358,928 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 14,950,465. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1 year low of $13.65 and a 1 year high of $20.07. The company has a market cap of $22.06 billion, a PE ratio of 11.70, a P/E/G ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.21. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $16.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $16.40. The company has a current ratio of 0.89, a quick ratio of 0.63 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 6.81% and a return on equity of 9.12%. The company had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $7.09 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.38 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side 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. Shareholders of record on Friday, March 15th were given a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.06%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 35.86%.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts have commented on the company. Stifel Nicolaus cut their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $18.00 and set a “buy” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com upgraded Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, April 19th. Morgan Stanley boosted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Monday, April 15th. Evercore ISI lowered their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein downgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their price target for the stock from $20.00 to $17.00 in a report on Tuesday, January 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $17.91.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rise Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 253.9% during the 1st quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,465 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 1,051 shares during the period. Authentikos Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at about $31,000. Ritter Daniher Financial Advisory LLC DE acquired a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the third quarter valued at about $33,000. American National Bank lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 89.4% during the first quarter. American National Bank now owns 1,949 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 920 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Salem Investment Counselors Inc. lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 180.1% during the fourth quarter. Salem Investment Counselors Inc. now owns 1,961 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $33,000 after purchasing an additional 1,261 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% 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.