Janney Montgomery Scott LLC Raises Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Janney Montgomery Scott LLC raised its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 235,697 shares of the computer maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 22,139 shares during the period. Janney Montgomery Scott LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $7,691,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its stake in HP by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $857,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC grew its stake in HP by 8.1% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its holdings in shares of HP by 5.9% in 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 during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its stake in shares of HP by 3.2% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. lifted its holdings 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 worth $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the business’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 sale, the insider now owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 over the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Down 1.8 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $32.74 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.70 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.30 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.25.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a $0.2894 dividend. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several brokerages recently issued reports on HPQ. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.23.

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.