JPMorgan Chase & Co. Issues Pessimistic Forecast for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price objective cut by stock analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. from $42.00 to $41.00 in a report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has an “overweight” rating on the computer maker’s stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co.‘s price target would suggest a potential upside of 8.09% from the stock’s current price.

Several other analysts also recently issued reports on HPQ. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.45.

HP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $37.93 on Wednesday. HP has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.52. The company has a market capitalization of $36.55 billion, a PE ratio of 13.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.07. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $36.26 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.24.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The business had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.37 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.86 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are usually a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of HP by 8.2% in the third 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 in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 11.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after acquiring an additional 2,477,977 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in shares of HP in the second quarter worth $62,672,000. DME Capital Management LP increased its position in shares of HP by 108.7% in the second quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 3,373,030 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $118,124,000 after acquiring an additional 1,757,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its position in shares of HP by 11.4% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $508,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455,138 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds 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.