Hsbc Global Res Downgrades HP (NYSE:HPQ) to Hold

HP (NYSE:HPQ) was downgraded by investment analysts at Hsbc Global Res from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report issued to clients and investors on Friday,Zacks.com reports.

A number of other brokerages also recently issued reports on HPQ. HSBC downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday. Barclays lifted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup dropped their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HP has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

HP Stock Up 2.2 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $35.43 on Friday. HP has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.59. The company has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued 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. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities research analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 1.2% during the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $857,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 8.1% during the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in shares of HP by 5.9% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,321 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its position in shares of HP by 3.2% during the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of HP by 0.9% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.