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

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) saw unusually large options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders bought 32,448 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 135% compared to the average daily volume of 13,785 call options.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 18,323 shares of the company’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 value of $310,758.08. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 15,541 shares in the company, valued at approximately $263,575.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.40% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPE. Epoch Investment Partners Inc. bought a new stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the fourth quarter valued at $51,384,000. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 4th quarter worth approximately $48,291,000. Bank of Nova Scotia raised its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 276.8% during the 3rd quarter. Bank of Nova Scotia now owns 2,302,065 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $39,987,000 after purchasing an additional 1,691,083 shares during the period. Citigroup Inc. boosted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 70.2% in the 3rd quarter. Citigroup Inc. now owns 3,550,595 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $61,674,000 after purchasing an additional 1,464,650 shares during the period. Finally, DNB Asset Management AS boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 261.6% during the fourth quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 2,015,451 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $34,222,000 after acquiring an additional 1,458,034 shares during the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

NYSE HPE traded down $0.51 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $16.49. 4,750,566 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 14,618,269. The company has a quick ratio of 0.63, a current ratio of 0.89 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.37. The stock has a market capitalization of $21.44 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.72, a P/E/G ratio of 3.18 and a beta of 1.21. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1 year low of $13.65 and a 1 year high of $20.07. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $17.12 and its 200-day simple moving average is $16.41.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) 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 the consensus estimate of $7.09 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 6.81%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business posted $0.38 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 earnings per share for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. The ex-dividend date was Thursday, March 14th. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 35.86%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on HPE shares. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $17.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, April 17th. Barclays cut their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $15.00 to $14.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI decreased their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “in-line” rating for the company in a report on Friday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut 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. Eight investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $17.91.

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.