HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Raises Dividend to $0.29 Per Share

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 26th,Wall Street Journal reports. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.2894 per share by the computer maker on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

HP has raised its dividend payment by an average of 13.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. HP has a payout ratio of 30.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities research analysts expect HP to earn $3.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.6%.

HP Stock Down 11.4 %

Shares of NYSE:HPQ traded down $4.44 on Wednesday, reaching $34.66. The company had a trading volume of 27,022,192 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,848,092. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.56 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.53. HP has a twelve month low of $27.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, sell-side analysts predict that HP will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several research analysts have commented on HPQ shares. UBS Group lifted their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital cut their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.32.

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 often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

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.