HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target Raised to $34.00

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price increased by Sanford C. Bernstein from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research note released on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have a market perform rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other analysts also recently commented on HPQ. HSBC downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays upped their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup lowered their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $33.14 on Friday. The business has a fifty day moving average of $35.50 and a 200 day moving average of $35.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.08 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.79, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.05. HP has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. Analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.49%. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In related news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Chris Bulman Inc purchased a new position in HP during the 2nd quarter worth $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of HP by 16.1% during 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 buying an additional 160,268 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its stake in HP by 47.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $5,259,000 after acquiring an additional 47,230 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in HP by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 16,207 shares during the period. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HP by 25.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $37,712,000 after purchasing an additional 202,613 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.