Blue Trust Inc. Buys 2,606 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Blue Trust Inc. boosted its stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 24.6% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 13,186 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 2,606 shares during the period. Blue Trust Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $473,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the third quarter valued at $25,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC increased its stake in HP by 115.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in HP in the third quarter worth about $37,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in shares of HP in the third quarter worth approximately $40,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HPQ has been the subject of a number of recent analyst reports. HSBC lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup cut their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays boosted their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.23.

HP Trading Down 0.9 %

HPQ opened at $32.51 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $30.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.57, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The business’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.03 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.18.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. On average, equities research analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is 41.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. This trade represents a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total value of $4,997,076.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 in the last three months. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

HP Company Profile

HP Inc provides products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses, and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. It operates through Personal Systems and Printing segments. The Personal Systems segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, thin clients, commercial tablets and mobility devices, retail point-of-sale systems, displays and other related accessories, software, support, and services for the commercial and consumer markets.