Hfe or B(beta, but i cant write that) is the amplification of the transistor, or the gain. this is what the multimeter mesures, but it is not enough to identify the transistor. there are a lot of transistors that have anout the same gain, but some have a gain wich can be different from transistor to transistor, for example, a BC107 would hava a gain >110, so you might expect 120 of maybe even 200!, so its not quite relevant to mesure the hFE(this is the way it is written, sorry for writing it in a different way, but i wasnt pying attention.