Compass Planning Associates Inc Invests $63,000 in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Compass Planning Associates Inc bought a new stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm bought 1,945 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Creative Planning lifted its stake in HP by 5.3% in the third quarter. Creative Planning now owns 225,129 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $8,075,000 after buying an additional 11,240 shares during the last quarter. Blue Trust Inc. lifted its holdings in HP by 80.5% in the third quarter. Blue Trust Inc. now owns 10,580 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $371,000 after acquiring an additional 4,718 shares during the period. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC grew its position in HP by 26.3% during the third quarter. Foundations Investment Advisors LLC now owns 9,038 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $324,000 after buying an additional 1,884 shares during the period. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC boosted its position in HP by 3.7% during the third quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 23,413 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $840,000 after purchasing an additional 832 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Signaturefd LLC increased its holdings in HP by 3.6% during the 3rd quarter. Signaturefd LLC now owns 18,142 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $651,000 after acquiring an additional 631 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $34.73 on Friday. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $33.10 and a 200 day simple moving average of $34.81. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $32.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. HP’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.28%.

Insider Activity at HP

In related news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.43, for a total value of $2,560,077.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 56,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,933,898.67. This trade represents a 56.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068 over the last ninety days. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have issued reports on HPQ shares. Citigroup decreased their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Barclays increased their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment 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’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.68.

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.