HP (NYSE:HPQ) Cut to Hold at HSBC

HSBC lowered shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a buy rating to a hold rating in a report published on Friday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $38.00 target price on the computer maker’s stock, down from their prior target price of $39.00.

Other research analysts have also recently issued reports about the stock. Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price on the stock. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. TD Cowen increased their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.77.

HP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $35.43 on Friday. HP has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.62. The company has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.61, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.53 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s payout ratio is 39.15%.

HP announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was 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 represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in HP in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in HP during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HP in the second quarter worth $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its holdings in shares of HP by 115.1% during the third quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP during the third quarter valued at $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.