HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Rating Upgraded by StockNews.com

HP (NYSE:HPQ) was upgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report issued on Thursday.

A number of other equities analysts have also commented on the stock. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. HSBC lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup cut their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.14.

HP Price Performance

HPQ opened at $28.71 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $27.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.22, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The firm’s fifty day moving average price is $31.64 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $34.06. HP has a fifty-two week low of $27.43 and a fifty-two week high of $39.80.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.74. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The business had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.35 billion. On average, equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, 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 value of $357,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp increased its holdings in HP by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of HP by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,350,016 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $825,398,000 after buying an additional 579,525 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of HP by 4.2% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,776,697 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $482,164,000 after purchasing an additional 592,391 shares during the last quarter. Northern Trust Corp lifted its position in shares of HP by 15.8% in the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,795 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $419,126,000 after buying an additional 1,755,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in HP by 7.3% during the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,511,218 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $310,351,000 after purchasing an additional 643,192 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.