Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Raises Stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC lifted its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) by 3.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,822 shares of the technology company’s stock after purchasing an additional 693 shares during the period. Verdence Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise were worth $405,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Morgan Stanley boosted its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.2% during the 3rd quarter. Morgan Stanley now owns 15,879,051 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $275,819,000 after acquiring an additional 634,727 shares in the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp increased its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.6% in the third quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 14,831,872 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $257,630,000 after buying an additional 913,014 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 6.5% in the 3rd quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 14,518,564 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $252,187,000 after buying an additional 880,271 shares in the last quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 10.0% during the 3rd quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 14,395,647 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $250,052,000 after acquiring an additional 1,309,878 shares in the last quarter. Finally, California Public Employees Retirement System grew its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4.8% in the third quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 7,910,836 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $137,411,000 after purchasing an additional 359,590 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms recently issued reports on HPE. Barclays reduced 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 note on Friday, March 1st. StockNews.com raised Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Evercore ISI reduced their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $19.00 to $18.00 and set an “in-line” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 1st. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Monday, April 15th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein cut shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “market perform” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $20.00 to $17.00 in a research note on Tuesday, January 16th. Seven research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $17.91.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Price Performance

HPE stock opened at $16.84 on Tuesday. The company has a market cap of $21.89 billion, a PE ratio of 11.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.21. 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 stock has a 50-day moving average price of $16.89 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $16.40. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 12-month low of $13.65 and a 12-month high of $20.07.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 29th. The technology company reported $0.48 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.45 by $0.03. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a return on equity of 9.12% and a net margin of 6.81%. The business had revenue of $6.76 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $7.09 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.38 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down 13.5% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that Hewlett Packard Enterprise will post 1.4 EPS for the current year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Friday, April 12th. Investors of record on Friday, March 15th were issued a dividend of $0.13 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Thursday, March 14th. This represents a $0.52 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.09%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is 35.86%.

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.