BofA Securities raised its price target for Hewlett Packard Enterprise to $82 from $80 while maintaining a Buy rating, citing accelerating demand for the company’s servers and AI infrastructure. The upgrade follows a 146% share-price gain over the past six months, with HPE last trading at $52.31 and carrying a P/E ratio of 48.61.
BofA’s upgrade coincides with a broader upgrade cycle in enterprise hardware as customers expand AI-capable datacenter capacity. The firm also highlighted HPE’s selection by Vultr for AI datacenter expansions in partnership with NVIDIA, leveraging HPE’s AI factory capabilities and NVIDIA’s computing and networking technology. Analysts noted that HPE’s server franchise is benefiting from accelerated refresh cycles and hyperscale demand.
For fiscal year 2026, BofA projects revenue of $12.3 billion for the third quarter, exceeding the $12.0 billion market consensus and HPE’s guided range of $11.5 billion to $12.1 billion. Earnings per share are forecast at $0.95, above the $0.93 consensus and HPE’s guidance of $0.88 to $0.93. The firm expects management to narrow the full-year revenue growth guidance to a range of 29% to 33%, up from the current 29% to 32%, and to raise the annual EPS guidance by $0.05 to a range of $3.40 to $3.50.
Fourth-quarter estimates from BofA place revenue at $13.0 billion, matching the market consensus and HPE’s guided range of $12.7 billion to $13.3 billion. EPS is projected at $1.08, in line with the $1.07 consensus and HPE’s guided range of $1.05 to $1.10. The next earnings release is scheduled for September 2, 2026, driven by performance in storage and standard market servers.
HPE shares rose 3.5% on the day after Lenovo reported stronger-than-expected quarterly results and revenue growth. UBS, meanwhile, maintained a Neutral rating with a $65 price target, citing the integration of the Juniper platform as a neutral factor for valuation.
