Investors Purchase High Volume of Call Options on Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE)

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Wednesday. Investors purchased 26,864 call options on the stock. This is an increase of 41% compared to the average daily volume of 19,108 call options.

Insider Activity

In other news, SVP Jeremy Cox sold 11,577 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, January 6th. The shares were sold at an average price of $23.00, for a total value of $266,271.00. Following the sale, the senior vice president now owns 48,615 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,118,145. The trade was a 19.23 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.36% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Kathmere Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 87.2% in the 4th quarter. Kathmere Capital Management LLC now owns 25,483 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $544,000 after buying an additional 11,869 shares in the last quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 83.7% during the fourth quarter. Lebenthal Global Advisors LLC now owns 36,096 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $771,000 after acquiring an additional 16,447 shares during the last quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB increased its stake in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 35.1% during the fourth quarter. Nordea Investment Management AB now owns 7,253,035 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $155,142,000 after acquiring an additional 1,885,559 shares during the last quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC raised its position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 78.8% during the fourth quarter. Nisa Investment Advisors LLC now owns 909,919 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $19,545,000 after purchasing an additional 401,016 shares during the period. Finally, USA Financial Formulas bought a new stake in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 4th quarter valued at approximately $617,000. Institutional investors own 80.78% of the company’s stock.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Up 0.5 %

HPE opened at $16.56 on Wednesday. The company has a market capitalization of $21.75 billion, a PE ratio of 8.72, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.20. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $19.99 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $20.48. The company has a quick ratio of 0.99, a current ratio of 1.29 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.54. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a 52 week low of $14.64 and a 52 week high of $24.66.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, April 18th. Investors of record on Friday, March 21st will be paid a dividend of $0.13 per share. This represents a $0.52 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.14%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, March 21st. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s payout ratio is presently 25.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on HPE. Daiwa America cut Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, March 12th. Susquehanna cut their target price on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $20.00 to $15.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Friday, March 7th. Daiwa Capital Markets downgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from an “outperform” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $16.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Wednesday, March 12th. Citigroup upgraded shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “neutral” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price objective for the stock from $23.00 to $26.00 in a report on Friday, December 6th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $27.00 to $20.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Friday, March 7th. Nine equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating, seven have issued a buy rating and one has issued a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, Hewlett Packard Enterprise currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $21.27.

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.