HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Sanford C. Bernstein Analyst Says

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price lifted by analysts at Sanford C. Bernstein from $32.00 to $34.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a “market perform” rating on the computer maker’s stock. Sanford C. Bernstein’s target price would indicate a potential upside of 2.60% from the stock’s previous close.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on HPQ. Citigroup lowered 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. Barclays increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, HP currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $33.14 on Friday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.50 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.53. HP has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company has a market capitalization of $31.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.79, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.05.

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 analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Trading of HP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Chris Bulman Inc bought a new stake in HP in the 2nd quarter valued at $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings in shares of HP by 16.1% in the third 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. Tidal Investments LLC raised its position in shares of HP by 47.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $5,259,000 after purchasing an additional 47,230 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC lifted its stake in shares of HP by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,243,000 after buying an additional 16,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its holdings in shares of HP by 25.2% during the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $37,712,000 after buying an additional 202,613 shares during the period. Institutional investors 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.