Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (HPE) Stock — Forensic Analysis, Red Flags & Rating | Stockonomy · Stockonomy
Forensic Analysis · Technology / Software · as of Sep 24, 2026
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co (HPE)
A forensic read on Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co built from its complete SEC filings — financial-health screens, earnings quality, red flags and a price-aware rating. Reproducible math, not opinion.
D · Weak — demands caution
Forensic grade
Grey Zone
Financial health
1.6
Distress distance
Clean
Earnings quality
5
Forensic signals
28.9
P / E (ttm)
0.2%
ROE
$82.7B
Market cap
3.03%
Dividend yield
13.8%
Revenue growth
This free snapshot doesn't read filing or proxy text, so the auditor-quality and governance checks that can lower a grade were not evaluated (red flags, auditor quality, say on pay, board independence, going concern, valuation). Those checks only ever lower a grade, so the full analysis can land below the grade above but never above it — treat it as the most favourable reading, not the settled one.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co earns a D (Weak — demands caution) forensic quality grade, and its balance-sheet distress test reads 1.6, placing it in the Grey zone. 5 forensic signals were flagged in its latest SEC filings, led by accruals ratio (% of noa).
What the filings flag
+38.4%
FY2024→FY2025
Accruals ratio (% of NOA).Net operating assets grew +38.4% relative to their own average in FY2025 — scaled by NOA itself, not by total assets, which is what the Forensic Screens card's own accrual row divides by. Accruals are building sharply — a large slice of profit sits in operating assets, not cash. An accrual is a claim that still has to be collected or written down, so the gap resolves in a later period whichever way it goes. The build is led by receivables up +49% against revenue +14% and payables paid down 30% against +14% in revenue. A cash-flow measure on the same base disagrees: reported earnings ran behind operating cash by 8% of net operating assets, against an accruals ratio of 38.4%. The two are computed differently: the accruals ratio is the change in net operating assets over average net operating assets, while the cash-flow figure is net income less operating cash flow over that same average. Read them as two results, not one.
-0.7%
FY2025
Return on invested capital.Return on invested capital is -0.7% in the latest fiscal year and slipping across FY2023–FY2025 from 5%. The capital base behind it grew +41% across FY2023–FY2025, from $35.0B to $49.3B, while the return fell 6.1 points, so the dollars added over that window earned less than the 5% the older base was already earning.
$1.6B
FY2025–FY2025
Goodwill impairments.Took $1.6B of goodwill writedowns across 1 year (FY2025 ($1.6B)) — about 2768% of net income over the span. A large writedown means an acquisition turned out worth far less than was paid — a real mark against M&A discipline.
+0.3%/yr
FY2023–FY2025
Share count.Diluted share count changed +1% over the last 2 years to FY2025 (+0.3%/yr). Roughly flat — buybacks ($202M) are about offsetting stock comp ($643M), not shrinking the count. Per-share value isn't being meaningfully helped or hurt by the count.
Key fundamentals
Latest Revenue$34.30B
Revenue Growth YoY+13.8%
Revenue CAGR (2yr)+8.5%
Net Margin0.2%
Free Cash Flow$627.0M
Return on Equity0.2%
Debt / Equity0.91x
The forensic grade and screens above are free — no account needed. Want the AI investment read on top — the 0–100 rating, thesis, bull-vs-bear, red flags and the 12-month scenario, written from Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co's actual 10-K/10-Q/8-K filings?
Data from SEC EDGAR public filings · metrics as of Sep 24, 2026. Forensic signals flag probability, not certainty.
141% of FCF
FY2025
Shareholder returns.Returned $886M to shareholders (buybacks + dividends) in FY2025 — 141% of free cash flow, but 30% of operating cash flow. Returns run ahead of free cash flow, with the gap funded by debt or cash reserves rather than the cash the business itself throws off; the payout itself is still covered by operating cash. Counting the $643M of stock-based comp paid out in shares on top of that, the combined claim on free cash flow is 244%.