Hewlett-Packard Enterprise raised to Buy at BofA on several catalysts; shares up

Investing.com -- Analysts at Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) (BofA) hiked their rating on Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (NYSE:HPE) shares to Buy from Neutral and lifted the price target on the stock to $24 from $21.

The company’s shares rose roughly 4% in Tuesday’s market pre-open.

The upgrade reflects BofA's positive outlook on the company's potential for significant cost cuts, a cyclical recovery in its core markets, and revenue and cost synergies from its upcoming acquisition of Juniper Networks Inc (NYSE:JNPR)s.

HPE's acquisition of Juniper Networks for approximately $14 billion in cash is expected to close soon, with CEO Neri at the helm. The move is intended to reduce HPE's dependency on compute solutions and enhance its focus on the higher-margin networking business.

Despite a challenging networking market, BofA anticipates that cost synergies from the deal will exceed $450 million, with 70% expected to be realized by the end of 2026, contributing to a significant increase in consensus earnings per share (EPS).

“We expect additional cost takeouts at core HPE of at least 100bps incrementally, which is also likely conservative,” BofA analysts said in a Tuesday note.

In its Q3 financial report, HPE showcased AI server revenues of $1.3 billion and a substantial backlog of $3.4 billion. The company also reported an increase in server operating margins quarter over quarter, highlighting a focus on profitability.

BofA expects HPE to benefit from its partnership with NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA), leveraging AI computing and capitalizing on Juniper’s Mist platform in the networking market.

“With decades of expertise in liquid cooling (CRAY systems) and increased adoption of supercomputing, HPE will be able to command a key position in AI adoption at Enterprise and Sovereign,” analysts continued.

HPE's stock is currently trading at approximately 8x the estimated 2025 consensus EPS, which is at the lower end of its historical range of 6 to 13x. While acknowledging the risks of execution challenges and increased leverage, particularly in a recession scenario, BofA's price objective of $24 is based on a 10 times multiple of the projected 2026 pro-forma EPS of $2.40.