HP (NYSE:HPQ) Cut to “Hold” at Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research report report published on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently weighed in on HPQ. Barclays upped their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup cut their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. HSBC downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.77.

HP Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $35.43 on Friday. The company has a 50 day moving average of $36.57 and a 200-day moving average of $35.62. The firm has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a twelve month low of $27.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts forecast that HP will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.15%.

HP announced that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to reacquire up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity at HP

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 represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP in the second quarter valued at about $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of HP in the second quarter worth about $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC lifted its position in shares of HP by 115.1% during the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in HP during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 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.