HP (NYSE:HPQ) Cut to “Hold” at HSBC

HSBC lowered shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note published on Friday morning, Marketbeat.com reports. The brokerage currently has $38.00 price objective on the computer maker’s stock, down from their prior price objective of $39.00.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on HPQ. TD Cowen raised 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, November 27th. Loop Capital dropped their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup dropped their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, HP has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HP stock opened at $35.43 on Friday. HP has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.57 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.62.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued 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 business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities analysts expect that HP will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. HP’s payout ratio is currently 39.15%.

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

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. LVW Advisors LLC lifted its position in HP by 1.2% during the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $857,000 after buying an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of HP by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $138,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of HP by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,321 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $191,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp grew its holdings in shares of HP by 3.2% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. increased its position in HP by 0.9% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.