HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target Raised to $39.00

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price objective lifted by TD Cowen from $32.00 to $39.00 in a research note issued to investors on Wednesday, Marketbeat Ratings reports. They currently have a hold rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other equities research analysts have also commented on the stock. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.77.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $35.43 on Wednesday. HP has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.57 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.56. The firm has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. HP’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

HP Increases Dividend

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred 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 $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC bought a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 115.1% during the 3rd 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 during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by 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.