** Shares of AI server maker Hewlett Packard HPE.N rise 3.63% to $22.55 premarket, after Morgan Stanley upgrades the co to "overweight" from "equal-weight" and raises TP to $28 from $23
** The broker sees the pending acquisition of Juniper JNPR.N as attractive in the near term, with Juniper coming out of inventory digestion and recognising new cloud customers
** MS believes the deal is a wait-and-see on long-term value recognition, but risk reward is skewed positively in the near term
** "With checks and competitors pointing to little downside to HPE's core numbers in the near term, we feel comfortable stepping into HPE", MS says
** The broker says that there is little risk for HPE's Q4 results, after Cisco CSCO.O and Dell's DELL.N earnings over the last couple of weeks showing that the "enterprise spend environment is ok"
** The company is expected to report Q4 results late on Thursday, with earnings at 56 cents per share, according to LSEG's mean analyst estimate
** Out of 18 analysts that cover Hewlett Packard Enterprise, nine rate the stock "strong buy" or "buy" and nine rate "hold"
(Reporting by Joao Manuel Mauricio)
((JoaoManuel.VicenteMauricio@thomsonreuters.com))
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