Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (NYSE:HPE) gapped down prior to trading on Thursday after UBS Group lowered their price target on the stock from $65.00 to $59.00. The stock had previously closed at $51.83, but opened at $47.60. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares last traded at $48.37, with a volume of 12,215,868 shares traded.

Several other brokerages have also recently weighed in on HPE. The Goldman Sachs Group upped their price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $32.00 to $79.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lowered their price target on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $67.00 to $54.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday. Argus boosted their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $30.00 to $70.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Wednesday, June 3rd. Susquehanna upped their price objective on shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from $21.00 to $65.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Tuesday, June 2nd. Finally, Loop Capital raised shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the company from $23.00 to $75.00 in a research note on Tuesday, June 2nd. Twelve equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating and six have issued a Hold rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, Hewlett Packard Enterprise has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $68.94.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other Hewlett Packard Enterprise news, SVP Kirt P. Karros sold 18,785 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, June 22nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $48.50, for a total transaction of $911,072.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Company insiders own 0.44% of the company’s stock.

Key Headlines Impacting Hewlett Packard Enterprise

Here are the key news stories impacting Hewlett Packard Enterprise this week:

• Positive Sentiment: Strong quarterly results and higher guidance: HPE reported fiscal Q3 adjusted EPS of $1.11, exceeding the approximately $0.93–$0.95 consensus, while revenue rose 33.7% year over year to $12.21 billion, above expectations. Management raised fiscal 2026 EPS guidance to $3.75–$3.85 and projected revenue of $46–$47 billion, both above analyst estimates. HPE Reports Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: AI and networking demand remains robust: Record orders and backlog, broad-based enterprise AI demand and surging networking orders support HPE’s longer-term growth outlook. The company also forecast fiscal 2027 revenue growth of 13%–17% and at least $5 billion in free cash flow. HPE Q3 Earnings Call Highlights AI Demand, Networking Shift
• Positive Sentiment: Strategic networking expansion: HPE expanded its collaboration with Oracle to deploy Juniper Networking technology across Oracle’s AI data centers, potentially strengthening its position in gigawatt-scale AI infrastructure. HPE and Oracle Deepen Networking Collaboration
• Neutral Sentiment: Analyst views remain mixed: Barclays raised its target to $79 and Morgan Stanley maintained an overweight rating while trimming its target to $67. Wells Fargo lowered its target sharply to $54 and assigned an equal-weight rating, indicating more limited near-term upside.
• Neutral Sentiment: HPE declared a quarterly dividend of $0.1425 per share, with a 1.1% annualized yield. The company will also host a Networking Investor Day on September 30, which could provide additional detail on its growth strategy.
• Negative Sentiment: Supply constraints overshadow the beat: Networking orders are reportedly exceeding available supply, raising concerns that component shortages could delay revenue recognition and limit HPE’s ability to capitalize fully on AI demand.
• Negative Sentiment: Margin sustainability is under scrutiny: Investors are questioning whether recent profit improvement can persist as AI systems represent a larger portion of the product mix, potentially creating pricing pressure and lower margins. High expectations following the stock’s substantial prior rally may also be contributing to profit-taking.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Hewlett Packard Enterprise

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Parrish Capital LLC purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $201,000. Amundi boosted its position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 61.0% during the second quarter. Amundi now owns 6,875,028 shares of the technology company’s stock worth $310,132,000 after acquiring an additional 2,604,937 shares during the last quarter. Advus Financial Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the second quarter worth $244,000. Financial Insights Inc. purchased a new position in Hewlett Packard Enterprise during the second quarter valued at $237,000. Finally, California State Teachers Retirement System increased its holdings in Hewlett Packard Enterprise by 4,299.0% in the 2nd quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 92,484,612 shares of the technology company’s stock valued at $4,171,981,000 after acquiring an additional 90,382,225 shares during the last quarter. 80.78% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Stock Performance

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $49.63 and its 200 day simple moving average is $37.46. The firm has a market cap of $65.11 billion, a PE ratio of 45.69, a PEG ratio of 0.54 and a beta of 1.43. The company has a current ratio of 1.09, a quick ratio of 0.75 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.72.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, September 2nd. The technology company reported $1.11 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93 by $0.18. The business had revenue of $12.21 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $11.97 billion. Hewlett Packard Enterprise had a net margin of 3.94% and a return on equity of 11.91%. The business’s revenue was up 33.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.44 EPS. Hewlett Packard Enterprise has set its Q4 2026 guidance at 1.200-1.300 EPS and its FY 2026 guidance at 3.750-3.850 EPS. On average, research analysts forecast that Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company will post 2.92 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, October 16th. Stockholders of record on Thursday, September 17th will be issued a $0.1425 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Thursday, September 17th. This represents a $0.57 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 1.2%. Hewlett Packard Enterprise’s dividend payout ratio is presently 53.27%.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company Profile

Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) is an enterprise technology company that designs, develops and sells IT infrastructure, software and services for business and government customers. Its core offerings span servers, storage, networking, and related software, together with consulting, integration and support services aimed at modernizing and managing enterprise IT environments. HPE’s product portfolio includes systems for traditional data centers as well as solutions for high-performance computing, edge computing and telecommunications infrastructure.

A major focus for HPE is hybrid cloud and consumption-based IT.