Daiwa Securities Group Inc. Buys 16,205 Shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) by 10.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 164,619 shares of the technology company’s stock after acquiring an additional 16,205 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc.’s holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $3,368,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of HPE. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 18.1% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 27,383,858 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $560,274,000 after purchasing an additional 4,194,213 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.6% during the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 18,871,236 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $399,507,000 after buying an additional 822,722 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 3.8% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 16,939,160 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $358,602,000 after acquiring an additional 617,691 shares during the period. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 1.4% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 9,609,078 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $196,602,000 after acquiring an additional 129,463 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp raised its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 2.6% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 9,483,975 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $200,776,000 after acquiring an additional 237,321 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have weighed in on HPE shares. Citigroup increased their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $23.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 19th. Raymond James upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “strong-buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $23.00 to $29.00 in a research note on Monday, November 18th. Barclays upgraded 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 research report on Wednesday, September 25th. Loop Capital raised their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Monday, September 9th. Finally, Susquehanna reiterated a “neutral” rating and set a $20.00 price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in a research note on Friday, October 11th. Nine investment 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 stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $22.21.

Insider Activity

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, CEO Antonio F. Neri sold 83,334 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, September 25th. The shares were sold at an average price of $19.72, for a total transaction of $1,643,346.48. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 1,758,641 shares in the company, valued at $34,680,400.52. This trade represents a 4.52 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, EVP Neil B. Macdonald sold 29,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, September 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $17.00, for a total transaction of $493,000.00. Following the completion of the sale, the executive vice president now directly owns 82,061 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,395,037. This trade represents a 26.11 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 426,012 shares of company stock worth $8,599,617. 0.40% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Trading Down 5.9 %

Shares of HPE opened at $20.82 on Thursday. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 1-year low of $14.47 and a 1-year high of $22.82. The company has a market capitalization of $27.04 billion, a P/E ratio of 14.87, a P/E/G ratio of 3.47 and a beta of 1.19. The company has a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.36, a current ratio of 0.94 and a quick ratio of 0.62. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $20.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $19.71.

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

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, October 18th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 19th were issued a $0.13 dividend. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend 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 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.