Hewlett Packard Enterprise stock rose Wednesday and was among the top performers in the S&P 500 index, as investors grow increasingly optimistic about the company's expanding role in the artificial-intelligence infrastructure buildout.
HPE shares rose 3.6% to $73.07, on pace for an all-time closing high after briefly hitting an all-time intraday high of $73.28, according to Dow Jones Market Data. The S&P 500 and the S&P 500 Information Technology Sector indexes fell 0.3%. The IT index includes Nvidia, Microsoft, and Advanced Micro Devices, which declined 0.7%, 0.1%, and 0.6%, respectively.
On Wednesday, HPE announced four new enterprise servers powered by AMD's newest, sixth-generation processors. The new models deliver more computing power and the ability to move data around faster, making them better suited for AI-related workloads, HPE said. The launch further expands the company's hardware lineup aimed at businesses that are adopting AI.
Analysts have pointed to HPE's growing AI opportunity in recent weeks following its acquisition of Juniper Networks, a networking equipment company, in July. Daiwa Capital Markets analysts wrote last week that the transaction would double the size of HPE's networking division and strengthen its cloud infrastructure.
Susquehanna analysts wrote last week they were seeing the "first signs" of HPE successfully breaking into data-center networking, and they said its Juniper deal will make it more competitive in the AI infrastructure market.
Analysts at Evercore ISI similarly wrote that HPE's AI-networking opportunity was growing faster than expected, and widespread AI adoption could produce more networking demand. The analysts also noted that AI could boost HPE's storage business, as companies that increasingly run AI applications in their own data centers will likely need more storage capacity to house and quickly access the large amount of data those applications require.
Of the 11 analysts polled by FactSet, seven have the equivalent of a Buy rating on HPE stock, while four rate it Hold or equivalent.