Citigroup Has Lowered Expectations for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price target decreased by equities research analysts at Citigroup from $37.00 to $36.50 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the computer maker’s stock. Citigroup’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 5.31% from the company’s current price.

Several other equities analysts also recently issued reports on the company. Barclays upped their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their target price on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target on the stock. in a report on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, TD Cowen increased their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.32.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $34.66 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $36.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.52. HP has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $33.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP declared that its board has authorized a share repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to reacquire up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HPQ. Chris Bulman Inc acquired a new position in shares of HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in HP by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in HP during the 2nd quarter worth $621,000. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its stake in HP by 154.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 109,493 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,309,000 after purchasing an additional 66,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service raised its position in shares of HP by 24.1% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,162,772 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $77,579,000 after buying an additional 419,774 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

About HP

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.