Brokerages Set HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target at $36.77

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has been assigned a consensus rating of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are presently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, nine have assigned a hold recommendation and two have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokerages that have covered the stock in the last year is $36.77.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on the stock. Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, September 27th. Barclays lifted their target price 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of HP stock in a transaction 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 sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This trade represents a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. LVW Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 1.2% during the 3rd quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $857,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC increased its position in HP by 8.1% during the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $138,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares during the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc increased its position in HP by 5.9% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,321 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $191,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares during the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp increased its position in HP by 3.2% during the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $346,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. increased its position in HP by 0.9% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

HP Trading Up 0.1 %

HPQ stock opened at $36.19 on Wednesday. The company has a market cap of $34.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.88, a PEG ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.04. HP has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The firm has a 50-day moving average of $36.61 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.70.

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

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.20%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s payout ratio is 40.93%.

HP announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

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.