HP (NYSE:HPQ) Downgraded to “Hold” Rating by Hsbc Global Res

Hsbc Global Res cut shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a strong-buy rating to a hold rating in a research note released on Friday morning,Zacks.com reports.

Several other equities research analysts have also issued reports on the stock. Loop Capital lowered their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, HSBC cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $35.43 on Friday. HP has a twelve month low of $27.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a PEG ratio of 2.46 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.57 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.62.

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. 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 during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Research analysts forecast that HP will post 3.53 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm 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. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.27%. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 39.15%.

HP declared that its board has approved a share repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. State Street Corp raised its holdings in 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 during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its stake 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 worth $885,877,000 after buying an additional 2,477,977 shares during the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its holdings in HP by 6.2% in the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $786,237,000 after buying an additional 1,319,731 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake 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 acquiring an additional 1,455,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc boosted its stake in HP by 11.3% in the second 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 last quarter. 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.