Hewlett Packard Enterprise (NYSE:HPE | HPE Price Prediction) is the loudest stock on Wall Street this morning. Shares are up 25% in early trading to $58.75 after the company posted a quarter that pulled its multi-year roadmap forward by two full years. The rally extends a stunning run: HPE is up 96.84% year to date and 178.65% over the past year.
The Quarter That Reset the Model
Q2 FY26 revenue hit $10.68 billion, up 40% year over year, with non-GAAP EPS of $0.79 blowing past the company’s own $0.51 to $0.55 guide. Net income swung to a $595 million profit from a $1.08 billion loss a year ago. Non-GAAP operating margin expanded to 13.3% from 8.0%, and free cash flow landed at $915 million.
CEO Antonio Neri framed the results directly:
“HPE delivered an exceptional quarter with record-breaking revenue, higher-than-anticipated profitability, and increased free cash flow, reflecting strong execution and healthy demand across the business.”
2028 Targets, Reached in 2026
The headline shock is the guide. HPE raised FY26 non-GAAP EPS to $3.35 to $3.45, revenue growth to 29% to 33%, and free cash flow to at least $3.5 billion. Those FY26 numbers already exceed the long-term FY28 targets HPE laid out at its October 2025 Security Analysts Meeting. Management also introduced an FY27 framework calling for 12% to 16% non-GAAP EPS growth and free cash flow of at least $4.5 billion.
Juniper Is the Engine
Networking revenue, supercharged by the Juniper Networks acquisition, exploded 148.2% to $2.69 billion, with data center networking up 233.3% and routing contributing $775 million from a near-zero base. Servers, the AI infrastructure proxy, rose 32.7% to $5.45 billion. Neri tied it together:
“Customers continue to invest in modernizing their infrastructure and scaling AI, and our performance shows the strength of our combined networking portfolio.”
Juggernaut or Hype?
The bull case is concrete: synergies are ahead of schedule, margins are expanding, and Reddit’s r/stocks is calling this the “biggest earnings beat since 2018”. Composite sentiment sits at 70.02, bullish.
The skeptical read has teeth too. Leverage runs at 4.18x net debt/EBITDA. Insiders have been sellers into the rip: CEO Neri disposed of 414,432 shares between March 25 and April 17, and CFO Marie Myers sold 93,583 shares at $30.0069 on May 5, well below today’s price. The stock now trades above the $29.92 analyst target on a 17x forward earnings multiple that suddenly looks dated against the new guide.
Watch Q3, where management guided revenue of $11.5 billion to $12.1 billion. If Juniper synergies and AI server demand hold through the back half, the juggernaut framing earns its keep. If networking growth normalizes, today’s pop will look like the high-water mark of the AI infrastructure trade.
Top Gaining Stocks
Top Losing Stocks