Citigroup Cuts HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target to $36.50

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price target trimmed by Citigroup from $37.00 to $36.50 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays increased their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen boosted their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group raised their target price on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, HP has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.77.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $35.43 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.61, a P/E/G ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $36.57 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $35.56.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The business 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 in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.93%.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s 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 sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter worth about $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of HP in the second quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its stake in 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 acquiring an additional 518 shares in the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new stake in HP during the 3rd quarter worth approximately $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently 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.