TLDR
- Bank of America raised its HPE price target to $38 — a new Street-high — while maintaining a “Buy” rating
- HPE reported Q1 FY2026 revenue of $9.3 billion, up 18% year-over-year, with EPS of $0.65 beating estimates
- The Networking segment surged 152% to $2.7 billion following the Juniper Networks acquisition
- HPE stock has risen roughly 73% over the past 12 months, hitting an all-time high of $29.63
- Institutional investors own 80.78% of HPE stock; consensus rating is “Moderate Buy”
Bank of America just raised its price target on Hewlett Packard Enterprise to $38 — up from $32 — making it the new Street-high. The bank kept its “Buy” rating in place and pointed to “agentic AI” as a key new demand driver for HPE’s infrastructure business.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company, HPE
Analyst Wamsi Mohan’s team sees HPE as a premium AI server maker, well-placed to gain market share as more complex AI workloads become standard. BofA estimates HPE will generate around $6.5 billion in AI server revenue in 2026.
The $38 target implies roughly 34% upside from current levels. HPE opened at $28.30 on Thursday and has a 52-week range of $15.71 to $29.63.
HPE’s most recent earnings gave investors plenty to work with. The company posted Q1 FY2026 revenue of $9.3 billion, up 18.4% year-over-year. Non-GAAP EPS came in at $0.65, beating the $0.59 analyst consensus by six cents.
The standout was the Networking segment, which grew 152% to $2.7 billion after the Juniper Networks acquisition closed. That segment now accounts for more than half of HPE’s total operating profits.
Gross margins hit 36.6% on a non-GAAP basis. HPE also reported a record $5 billion backlog in AI systems and rising orders for Wi-Fi 7 access points.
Strong Guidance and Raised Outlook
For Q2 FY2026, HPE guided for revenue between $9.6 billion and $10 billion, with non-GAAP EPS of $0.51 to $0.55. Full-year non-GAAP EPS guidance was raised to $2.30–$2.50.
CEO Antonio Neri said the company’s “AI Factory” order target has been lifted to nearly $1.9 billion by year-end. That’s a concrete signal that demand for HPE’s specialized AI infrastructure is holding up.
The company generated $1.2 billion in operating cash flow and paid a quarterly dividend of $0.1425 per share in April 2026.
Institutional Interest Remains High
Multiple institutional investors added to their HPE positions in Q4. Vanguard increased its stake by 1.1%, now holding over 173 million shares worth roughly $4.16 billion. Viking Fund Management raised its holdings by 22.5%, while Merit Financial Group more than doubled its position.
Vest Financial LLC boosted its stake by 64.6%, picking up an additional 42,629 shares to hold 108,579 total.
Institutional investors collectively own 80.78% of HPE stock — a figure that reflects broad confidence in the company’s direction.
On the insider side, executives sold 602,337 shares worth about $15.4 million over the past 90 days, though these were conducted under pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plans.
Despite the BofA upgrade, the broader analyst consensus sits at “Moderate Buy” with a mean price target of $26.71 — slightly below where the stock trades today. Nine analysts rate it a “Strong Buy,” one a “Moderate Buy,” and 10 have it at “Hold” out of 20 covering analysts.
HPE trades at a forward P/E of around 14.6 times. HPE stock is up roughly 73% over the past 12 months.
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