HPE vs NTAP: Which Is the Better Buy in 2026?

Last updated November 2026

Short answer

HPE is the larger of the two ($69.65B market cap): the incumbent the market prices for continued execution (11.08x forward earnings, beta 1.47). NTAP is the smaller challenger ($37.08B), actually pricier on forward earnings (16.91x): more room to run, but more to prove. The real question is which set of drivers you believe, and whether owning one (or both) leaves you over-concentrated.

HPE vs NTAP: the tie-breaker metrics

Same yardstick, side by side (as of November 2026). Valuation lined up like this is most meaningful for two names in the same corner of the market, which these are. Figures are approximate; verify before investing.

Metric	HPE	NTAP	What it tells you
Market cap	$69.65B	$37.08B	Size. The larger name is the incumbent; the smaller has more room to grow and more to prove.
Forward P/E	11.08	16.91	Valuation on next year's expected earnings, the same yardstick for both. Lower is cheaper for that growth; higher means the market is paying up.
Trailing P/E	27.05	26.62	Valuation on the last 12 months. A big drop from trailing to forward means the market expects earnings to jump, so more growth is already in the price.
Beta	1.47	1.51	Volatility vs the market. Above 1 swings harder than the index; below 1 is steadier. Higher beta means bigger drawdowns to hold through.
Price vs 52-week range	61% of range	65% of range	Where today's price sits between the 52-week low and high. Near the high is momentum with less margin of safety; near the low is out of favor or a discount, depending on why.
Price / book	2.63	24.75	How much you pay over book value. Very high can signal an asset-light, high-return business or a rich price.

Reading it: HPE is the cheaper of the two on forward earnings, but cheaper is not the same as better. Pair the valuation with growth (how far the forward P/E sits below the trailing P/E) and risk (beta) before you decide.

Before you buy: how HPE and NTAP affect your concentration

The metrics above tell you which is the marginally better business. The bigger risk for most people is not picking the slightly worse stock, it is over-concentrating. HPE and NTAP share themes, so owning both, or adding either to what you already hold, can quietly push a large share of your portfolio into one bet.

This is the part a generic comparison page cannot answer, because it depends on what you own. Connect your brokerage and Walnut shows your real, combined HPE and NTAP exposure, flags overlap with your existing positions, and tells you if adding one would tip you past a concentration you are comfortable with, read-only by default, with your login staying at your broker. Walnut is not an investment adviser.

What does Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company (HPE) do?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company sells the technology that runs businesses and data centers: servers (including AI-focused compute), storage, networking equipment, and hybrid-cloud and as-a-service offerings under its GreenLake platform, along with financial services. It emerged from the 2015 split of the old Hewlett-Packard, which separated the enterprise business (HPE) from the PC-and-printer business (HP Inc., ticker HPQ). It is a distinct company from both HP Inc. and the unrelated oil-drilling contractor Helmerich & Payne, which confusingly also uses HP.

Full HPE guide

What does NetApp, Inc. (NTAP) do?

NetApp, founded in 1992 and headquartered in San Jose, sells the systems and software enterprises use to store, protect and move their data. The core asset is ONTAP, a storage operating system that has been developed for three decades and now runs on NetApp's own all-flash arrays (the performance-oriented A-series, the capacity-oriented C-series, and the newer disaggregated AFX line), on commodity hardware, and, unusually, as a native first-party service inside the three largest public clouds. Azure NetApp Files, Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP and Google Cloud NetApp Volumes are sold by the hyperscalers themselves, which means NetApp collects revenue whether a customer's data sits in its own rack or in someone else's. Reporting splits into two segments: Hybrid Cloud, which is the on-premises systems, support and Keystone storage-as-a-service business and generated ~$6.24 billion in fiscal 2026, and Public Cloud, which covers the cloud services and generated ~$688 million. A large installed base of support contracts sits underneath both. The fiscal year ends in late April, so fiscal 2026 closed on April 24, 2026, and the first quarter of fiscal 2027 closed on July 31, 2026.

Full NTAP guide

HPE vs NTAP: how do they differ?

Both fit overlapping themes, but they are not interchangeable. The useful comparison is which set of drivers and risks you want exposure to.

HPE drivers: AI infrastructure demand; Juniper Networks and a bigger networking business.
NTAP drivers: AI workloads pulling storage along with them; The all-flash replacement cycle.

Which fits which kind of investor

A faster-growing, richer-valued name usually swings harder, so it suits a longer horizon and a higher tolerance for volatility; a steadier, more cash-generative business suits a more conservative or income-minded investor. The honest test is which set of risks you could hold through a drawdown: The biggest risk is that AI server demand, now the dominant driver, is both cyclical and lower-margin than HPE's other businesses. For NTAP, the dominant near-term risk is input cost: NAND and DRAM contract prices have risen sharply through 2026, and because storage vendors buy memory well ahead of shipping product, NetApp guided fiscal 2027 non-GAAP gross margin down to ~68.5% to ~69.5% from ~71.3% in fiscal 2026.

HPE or NTAP: which should you pick?

Growth-minded investors who believe the theme has years to run tend to accept the richer multiple for more upside; value-minded investors lean toward the cheaper forward earnings and steadier profile. Pick HPE if you believe its drivers more; NTAP if you believe its. Many investors hold both, but since they share themes, that is a concentrated bet, not diversification. Decide deliberately and check overlap. For the full detail, see the HPE and NTAP guides.

HPE vs NTAP: the full fundamentals

HPE. At about $56 on October 16, 2026, HPE traded near 27x trailing earnings but only about 12x forward estimates, because analysts expect EPS to jump from about $2.03 trailing to about $4.71 in fiscal 2027. That low forward multiple reflects doubts about the durability and margin quality of AI server revenue, which the October Barclays downgrade put front and center. The next report, fiscal Q4, is scheduled for December 3, 2026.

NTAP. At ~$207 and a market cap of ~$40.7 billion, NetApp trades at ~29 times trailing GAAP EPS of ~$7.09 but only ~19 times forward estimates, because analysts now expect fiscal 2027 EPS near ~$10.01 on revenue near ~$8.18 billion, well above the ~$7.33 billion to ~$7.58 billion revenue range management first guided. That gap between trailing and forward multiples is the whole debate: it holds only if the AI-driven acceleration persists while gross margin stays near ~70% despite memory costs. The ~1.0% dividend yield is a supplement to the buyback rather than the reason to own the stock, and the next report, due December 1, 2026, carries a consensus of ~$2.60 EPS on ~$2.1 billion of revenue.

Headline figures (approximate, October 2026): HPE shows revenue (ttm) ~$41.9 billion, revenue growth (fiscal q3 2026, year over year) ~34%, operating margin ~13%, net income (ttm) ~$2.7 billion; NTAP shows revenue (ttm to july 2026) ~$7.39B; FY2026 was ~$6.93B (+5%), latest quarter revenue (q1 fy2027, july 2026) ~$2.02B (+~30% YoY), eps (latest quarter vs estimate) ~$2.58 vs ~$2.12 consensus, net income / eps (ttm) ~$1.42B / ~$7.09 GAAP.

The bottom line: HPE vs NTAP

HPE and NTAP are related but distinct: same themes, different businesses and risks. Neither wins in the abstract; the right pick is whichever thesis you actually believe, sized so you are not over-concentrated in one theme. Walnut can show your combined HPE and NTAP exposure against your real portfolio. It is not an investment adviser.

Wondering how HPE or NTAP fits the portfolio you already own? Walnut is an AI investing app that connects your brokerage read-only and answers questions like that about your actual holdings: overlap, concentration, and how each position tracks the S&P 500. Compare the best AI portfolio analyzers or see the best AI investing apps in 2026.

Investing in Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company with AI

Connect the broker you already use and ask Walnut's AI how HPE fits what you actually hold: whether you own it already through a fund, what it would do to your concentration, and how it has tracked the S&P 500. Read-only by default, and you approve anything before it reaches your broker.

Does HPE fit me?

FAQ

What is the difference between HPE and NTAP?

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Company sells the technology that runs businesses and data centers: servers (including AI-focused compute), storage, networking equipment, and hybrid-cloud and as-a-service offerings under its GreenLake platform, along with financial services. NetApp, founded in 1992 and headquartered in San Jose, sells the systems and software enterprises use to store, protect and move their data. They show up together because they share investment themes, but they are different businesses, so the better fit depends on which thesis you are expressing.

Is HPE or NTAP the better stock?

Neither is universally better. HPE is the larger incumbent; NTAP is the smaller challenger and looks pricier on forward earnings. Walnut is informational, not investment advice. Compare what each does, the tie-breaker metrics above, and the risks, then decide which fits your thesis and what you already own.

Which is cheaper, HPE or NTAP?

On forward P/E (as of November 2026), HPE trades at 11.08x and NTAP at 16.91x, so HPE is the cheaper of the two on next year's expected earnings. A lower multiple is not automatically the better buy: a richer valuation can be justified by faster growth, and a lower one can reflect real risk. Weigh the multiple against how fast each business is compounding.

Should you own both HPE and NTAP?

Because they share themes, owning both concentrates you in that theme. That can be intentional (a focused bet) or accidental (less diversification than it looks). Walnut can show your combined exposure across both, and whether adding either over-concentrates you, before you buy.

What are the risks of HPE vs NTAP?

HPE: The biggest risk is that AI server demand, now the dominant driver, is both cyclical and lower-margin than HPE's other businesses. AI hardware sales can be lumpy, tied to a handful of large customers and their capital budgets, so a pause in AI spending would hit growth hard, and the thin margins on AI servers mean fast revenue growth does not always translate into proportionate profit. That risk became concrete in October 2026, when Barclays downgraded the stock on the view that enterprise AI adoption is slower than expected (businesses put roughly 5% of IT budgets toward AI) and that server revenue gains partly reflect higher memory prices, and the shares fell about 20% in a week alongside Dell and Super Micro amid AI financing worries. Integrating Juniper Networks carries execution, cost, and cultural risk, and the deal added debt: total debt was about $20 billion against about $6.2 billion of cash as of fiscal Q3 2026. Competition is intense across every segment, from server rivals like Dell and Supermicro to networking leaders like Cisco and Arista. The broader enterprise-IT market is exposed to economic cycles and corporate-spending swings. As a hardware-heavy company, HPE also faces supply-chain, component-cost, and pricing pressures. Finally, the stock's recent re-rating raises expectations, so any slowdown in AI demand or Juniper integration missteps could prompt a sharp pullback. NTAP: The dominant near-term risk is input cost: NAND and DRAM contract prices have risen sharply through 2026, and because storage vendors buy memory well ahead of shipping product, NetApp guided fiscal 2027 non-GAAP gross margin down to ~68.5% to ~69.5% from ~71.3% in fiscal 2026. Management said it expected the July 2026 quarter to be the margin trough with recovery as price increases work through the system, but that depends on customers accepting higher prices, and NetApp has deliberately taken a more measured pricing stance than some rivals to protect gross profit dollars and relationships rather than fully pass costs through. Competition is structural rather than episodic: Dell and HPE bundle storage into much larger infrastructure relationships, Pure Storage competes hard on flash-native architecture and subscription pricing, and AI-specialist filesystem vendors are attacking exactly the high-performance tier NetApp is targeting with AFX. Demand itself is lumpy, since revenue depends on large enterprise deals and public-sector budgets that can slip a quarter for reasons unrelated to the product, and analysts expect growth to slow from ~27% in the October 2026 quarter to ~12% in the January 2027 quarter. The rally also cuts the other way: the shares are up ~95% in 2026, trade near ~29 times trailing earnings, and the mean analyst target of ~$212 sits only a few percent above the ~$207 close, so the valuation already embeds a good deal of the AI storage thesis. When Barclays downgraded Dell and HPE in mid-October 2026, NTAP fell with the group, a reminder that it trades as part of an AI hardware basket. Shareholders' equity is thin after years of buybacks (price to book is ~27), which leaves reported book value an unhelpful anchor if sentiment turns.

Walnut is informational, not investment advice. This page is descriptive and not a recommendation to buy or sell HPE or NTAP; figures are approximate and dated (as of November 2026). Verify current data before investing.