HP (NYSE:HPQ) Releases Quarterly Earnings Results, Meets Expectations

HP (NYSE:HPQ) posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93, Briefing.com reports. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 period last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS.

HP Stock Down 11.4 %

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $34.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.33, 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’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.52.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 39.15%.

HP declared that its board has authorized a share buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its stock is undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HPQ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup dropped their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group increased their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective 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. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.32.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value 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 approximately $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 accessible through this link. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

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.