Citigroup Issues Pessimistic Forecast for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price decreased by Citigroup from $37.00 to $36.50 in a report released on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the computer maker’s stock.

A number of other research firms also recently issued reports on HPQ. Barclays increased their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen upped their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their target price 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. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

HP Stock Up 2.2 %

HPQ opened at $35.43 on Wednesday. HP has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.14 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.61, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $36.57 and a 200-day moving average of $35.59.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The firm 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%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company 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 is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.93%.

HP declared that its board has authorized a share 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 buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the business. Chris Bulman Inc bought a new position in HP during the second quarter worth $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its position in HP by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter worth about $621,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in shares of HP by 154.7% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 109,493 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,309,000 after purchasing an additional 66,510 shares during the period. Finally, State of Alaska Department of Revenue raised its position in shares of HP by 11.4% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 193,700 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $6,947,000 after buying an additional 19,845 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is 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.