TD Cowen Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price lifted by TD Cowen from $32.00 to $39.00 in a research note published on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. TD Cowen currently has a hold rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently issued reports on HPQ. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group increased their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital reduced their price target on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.77.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $35.43 on Wednesday. HP has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07. The company has a 50-day moving average of $36.57 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.59.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Sell-side analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.27%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 40.93%.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are often a sign that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly 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 Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of HP by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its holdings in HP by 11.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after buying an additional 2,477,977 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its position in HP by 6.2% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $786,237,000 after buying an additional 1,319,731 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in HP by 11.4% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $508,791,000 after buying an additional 1,455,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of HP by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $375,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,848 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.