Franklin Resources Inc. Has $37.71 Million Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Franklin Resources Inc. boosted its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 25.2% during the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 202,613 shares during the quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. owned approximately 0.10% of HP worth $37,712,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. LVW Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of HP by 1.2% in 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 during the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC boosted 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 period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its stake in HP by 5.9% during the 3rd 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 grew its holdings in HP by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $346,000 after buying an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. increased its position in HP by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,232,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of HPQ opened at $33.83 on Wednesday. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $36.51 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.81. The stock has a market cap of $32.60 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.04, a P/E/G ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.04. HP Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.42%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.93%.

HP announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several equities research analysts have recently weighed in on HPQ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays increased their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. HSBC downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, HP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.45.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total value of $4,997,076.30. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.43, for a total transaction of $2,560,077.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 56,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,933,898.67. This represents a 56.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 262,035 shares of company stock worth $9,312,568 over the last ninety days. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP 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.