Is the business good?
How good a business is HPE?
Hewlett Packard Enterprise earns 5.2% on the capital it employs against a 9.0% cost of capital, so growth costs more than it returns.
5.2%
Return on invested capital · cost of capital 9.0% · 3.8 points below what the capital costs: growth destroys value
- Operating margin
- 6.2%
Operating margin · Communication Equipment median 5.3% · 12 months to Q3 2026
- Cash conversion
- 1.49×
Cash conversion · 0.18× a year ago · every dollar of reported profit arrived as cash, and more
- Share count, year on year
- +2.0%
Share count, year on year · shareholders own a smaller slice than a year ago
| Year | Operating margin |
|---|---|
| FY2020 | −1.2% |
| FY2021 | 4.1% |
| FY2022 | 2.7% |
| FY2023 | 7.2% |
| FY2024 | 7.3% |
| FY2025 | −1.3% |
Details›
- Operating margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 6.2%
- Net margin12 months to Q3 2026
- 6.7%
- Free cash flow margin
- 9.9%
- R&D as % of revenue
- 8.8%
- Revenue, trailing twelve months
- $41.9B
- Free cash flow, trailing twelve months
- $4.16B
- Net income, trailing twelve months
- $2.79B
- Return on invested capitaloperating profit after tax ÷ debt + equity − cash
- 5.2%
Margins, capital and share counts from the statements as filed with the SEC; cash conversion from the cash flow statement.
Communication Equipment
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