HP (NYSE:HPQ) Given New $36.00 Price Target at Morgan Stanley

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price objective decreased by Morgan Stanley from $37.00 to $36.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday morning, Benzinga reports. Morgan Stanley currently has an equal weight rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other research firms have also recently commented on HPQ. UBS Group increased their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a report on Thursday. Citigroup increased their price target on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Bank of America increased their price target on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on HP from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has an average rating of Hold and an average price target of $35.09.

HP Price Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $35.46 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $34.70 billion, a PE ratio of 11.98, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.36. HP has a 1-year low of $25.22 and a 1-year high of $39.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.37 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.60% and a negative return on equity of 230.39%. The business’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.86 EPS. On average, equities research analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be issued a $0.2756 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.11%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.16%.

Insider Activity at HP

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total value of $6,251,977.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,335,450.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in shares of HP during the fourth quarter worth about $187,264,000. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its position in HP by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,649,919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,441 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group increased its position in HP by 1,472.4% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,264,081 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $68,126,000 after acquiring an additional 2,120,096 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new position in HP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $62,672,000. Finally, DAVENPORT & Co LLC increased its position in HP by 10,188.2% in the 1st quarter. DAVENPORT & Co LLC now owns 1,777,912 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $53,680,000 after acquiring an additional 1,760,631 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other 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.