HP (NYSE:HPQ) Lowered to “Hold” Rating by HSBC

HSBC lowered shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a research note issued to investors on Friday, Marketbeat.com reports. HSBC currently has $38.00 price objective on the computer maker’s stock, down from their previous price objective of $39.00.

HPQ has been the subject of a number of other research reports. UBS Group increased their price target 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. Bank of America cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

HP Price Performance

HP stock opened at $35.43 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.57 and a 200-day moving average of $35.56. HP has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79.

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

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

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were 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. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LVW Advisors LLC increased its holdings in HP by 1.2% in the 3rd quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $857,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $138,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its stake in HP by 3.2% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $346,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. raised its position in 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. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.