HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Given Consensus Rating of “Hold” by Brokerages

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are covering the stock, Marketbeat reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have assigned a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price target among brokers that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $36.68.

Several equities analysts have recently commented on the company. HSBC downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their target price for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays increased their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Finally, Hsbc Global Res cut HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the 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 sale, the insider now owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last ninety days, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp grew its holdings in HP by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after acquiring an additional 3,923,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its holdings in HP by 2.3% during the 4th quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,350,016 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $825,398,000 after acquiring an additional 579,525 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its holdings in HP by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,776,697 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $482,164,000 after acquiring an additional 592,391 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp grew its holdings in HP by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,795 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $419,126,000 after acquiring an additional 1,755,942 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its holdings in HP by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,511,218 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $310,351,000 after acquiring an additional 643,192 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

HP Trading Down 0.3 %

HP stock opened at $34.63 on Monday. HP has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The stock’s 50 day moving average is $33.10 and its 200-day moving average is $34.83. The company has a market capitalization of $32.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.32, 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, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is 41.28%.

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.