What to Expect From Hewlett Packard Enterprise Earnings

September 7, 2016 by Chris Lange

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (NYSE: HPE) is scheduled to report its fiscal third-quarter financial results after the markets close on Wednesday. The consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters call for $0.45 in earnings per share (EPS) on $12.64 billion in revenue.

Within the past month, HPE announced that it will buy another old-school technology company in Silicon Graphics International Corp. (NASDAQ: SGI). At first glance this M&A news shows that HPE wants to extend its growth in big data analytics and in high performance computing. Although, it might just be acquiring a lot of old legacy contracts for hardware and services as well.

HPE said that the move will bolster its $11 billion HPC segment, which is growing at an estimated 6% to 8% per year. The growth in data analytics is even more, and the move will expand verticals in government, life sciences and R&D efforts.

As for the terms of this deal, SGI is being acquired for $7.75 per share in cash, which is just a value of $275 million net of SGI’s cash and debt.

HPE expects the acquisition to be neutral to earnings in the first full year following close and accretive thereafter. The merger is expected to close in the first quarter of HPE’s fiscal year 2017.

A few analysts weighed in on HPE prior to the release of the earnings report:

  • Credit Suisse reiterated an Outperform rating with a $25 price target.
  • Raymond James has a Market Perform rating.
  • Jefferies reiterated a Buy rating.
  • Needham reiterated a Buy rating with a $22 price target.
  • Citigroup has a Buy rating with a $25 price target.
  • Oppenheimer has an Outperform rating with a $25 price target.
  • Wells Fargo reiterated a Buy rating.
  • BMO Capital Markets reiterated a Buy rating.
  • Deutsche Bank has a Buy rating.
  • Morgan Stanley reiterated a Hold rating.
  • Merrill Lynch reiterated a Hold rating.
  • Sterne Agee CRT reiterated a Neutral rating.

So far in 2016, HPE has outperformed the broad markets, with the stock up about 45%. Over just the past quarter, the stock is up only 14%.

Shares of HPE were trading down fractionally at $21.70 Wednesday morning, with a consensus analyst price target of $21.42 and a 52-week trading range of $4.99 to $22.32.

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