New Mexico Educational Retirement Board Boosts Stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

New Mexico Educational Retirement Board increased its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 10.4% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 46,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 4,400 shares during the period. New Mexico Educational Retirement Board’s holdings in HP were worth $1,521,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Castleview Partners LLC raised 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 acquiring an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its stake in HP by 3.2% during the 3rd 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. Arvest Investments Inc. raised its stake in HP by 0.9% during the 3rd quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after acquiring an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC raised its stake in HP by 4.3% during the 3rd quarter. Avidian Wealth Enterprises LLC now owns 7,734 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $277,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedmont Private Capital raised its stake in HP by 2.6% during the 4th quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 12,648 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $420,000 after acquiring an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 89,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,253,964.40. This represents a 60.56 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several analysts have commented on the company. Barclays upped their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup cut their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. TD Cowen increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

HPQ opened at $33.69 on Monday. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.83. The stock has a market cap of $31.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.99, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79.

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

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.44%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.28%.

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.