HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Given Average Rating of “Hold” by Analysts

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has earned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are covering the stock, MarketBeat reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and one has issued a buy rating on the company. The average 1 year price objective among brokers that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.14.

A number of analysts have recently issued reports on HPQ shares. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Loop Capital dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, StockNews.com upgraded shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Tuesday.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP 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 value of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

A number of hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Norges Bank acquired a new position in HP in the fourth quarter worth $229,320,000. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in shares of HP by 8.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,871,046,000 after acquiring an additional 3,923,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in shares of HP by 11.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $885,877,000 after acquiring an additional 2,477,977 shares during the period. KBC Group NV boosted its holdings in shares of HP by 145.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,555,989 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $116,031,000 after acquiring an additional 2,105,104 shares during the period. Finally, C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at $65,260,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $28.52 on Friday. HP has a one year low of $27.43 and a one year high of $39.80. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $31.97 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.15, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.74. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The firm had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.35 billion. Sell-side analysts forecast that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal 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 paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.06%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.37%.

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.