Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund Raises Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund lifted its position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 228.2% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 220,674 shares of the computer maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 153,433 shares during the quarter. Illinois Municipal Retirement Fund’s holdings in HP were worth $7,201,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of HPQ. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in HP during the third quarter worth $25,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new position in shares of HP during the 4th quarter worth $31,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the 3rd quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC acquired a new stake in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $44,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Trading Down 1.0 %

HP stock opened at $33.76 on Thursday. The stock has a fifty day moving average price of $33.14 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.87. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.01, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

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

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.93%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts have issued reports on HPQ shares. HSBC cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price objective on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Barclays upped their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.68.

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.