Barclays Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price objective upped by research analysts at Barclays from $35.00 to $36.00 in a report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “equal weight” rating on the computer maker’s stock. Barclays‘s target price would indicate a potential upside of 17.09% from the company’s previous close.

A number of other research firms have also commented on HPQ. Citigroup lowered their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on HP from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday. Finally, HSBC lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, November 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.59.

HP Stock Down 7.2 %

HPQ opened at $30.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $28.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.94, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05. HP has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The business has a 50 day moving average of $33.11 and a 200-day moving average of $34.84.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.35 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. As a group, analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction 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 transaction, 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 position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total transaction of $4,997,076.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at $3,253,964.40. This trade represents a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders sold 262,737 shares of company stock valued at $9,316,641. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the third quarter valued at about $25,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $31,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. bought a new stake in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $36,000. Finally, OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by 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.