Brokerages Set HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) PT at $36.45

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

Several equities research analysts have recently commented on HPQ shares. Barclays lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. HSBC lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target 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. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the 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 completion of the sale, 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 document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of HP 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chris Bulman Inc bought a new position in shares of HP during the second quarter worth about $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in HP by 16.1% during the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $41,391,000 after acquiring an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in shares of HP by 47.5% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $5,259,000 after acquiring an additional 47,230 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in shares of HP by 35.0% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 16,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. lifted its position in shares of HP by 25.2% in the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $37,712,000 after purchasing an additional 202,613 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $33.14 on Friday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $35.50 and its 200-day moving average is $35.53. HP has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.08 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.05.

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

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. HP’s payout ratio is 40.93%.

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.