HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Receives Average Rating of “Hold” from Brokerages

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the firm, Marketbeat.com reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have given a hold recommendation and one has issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.23.

A number of brokerages have weighed in on HPQ. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th.

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $33.69 on Monday. HP has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.17 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.83. The company has a market cap of $31.59 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.99, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is 41.28%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In related news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068 in the last three months. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of HP during the 4th quarter worth about $229,320,000. State Street Corp grew its holdings in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in HP by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $885,877,000 after buying an additional 2,477,977 shares during the period. KBC Group NV lifted its stake in HP by 145.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,555,989 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $116,031,000 after purchasing an additional 2,105,104 shares during the last quarter. Finally, C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in shares of HP during the 4th quarter worth $65,260,000. 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.