KBC Group NV Raises Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

KBC Group NV raised its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 145.1% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 3,555,989 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,105,104 shares during the period. KBC Group NV’s holdings in HP were worth $116,031,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of HPQ. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP in the third quarter valued at approximately $25,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC raised 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 worth $35,000 after purchasing an additional 518 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new position in HP in the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new stake in HP in the third quarter valued at $44,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HPQ. TD Cowen raised their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price target 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. HSBC lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.23.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of HP stock opened at $32.73 on Monday. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.38 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.27. HP Inc. has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $30.69 billion, a PE ratio of 11.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company’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, sell-side analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

HP 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.