Brokerages Set HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target at $36.23

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve research firms that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, ten have given a hold recommendation and one has given a buy recommendation to the company. The average 12 month target price among brokerages that have updated their coverage on the stock in the last year is $36.23.

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. HSBC lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and cut their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays raised their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.43, for a total transaction of $2,560,077.08. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 56,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,933,898.67. The trade was a 56.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068 over the last 90 days. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC increased its position 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 acquiring an additional 518 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in HP in the 3rd quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Price Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $32.73 on Thursday. HP has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $30.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.65, a P/E/G ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $34.38 and its 200-day moving average is $35.27.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The firm 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 business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.2894 dividend. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.28%.

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.