StockNews.com Upgrades HP (NYSE:HPQ) to Buy

StockNews.com upgraded shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Thursday morning.

A number of other equities research analysts have also commented on the company. Barclays upped their price target on HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price objective on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on shares of HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.14.

HP Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of HP stock opened at $28.68 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $27.03 billion, a PE ratio of 10.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a 50 day moving average of $31.57 and a 200-day moving average of $34.02. HP has a 1-year low of $27.43 and a 1-year high of $39.80.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. Research analysts forecast that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced 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. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.04%. HP’s payout ratio is 41.37%.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total value of $453,734.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HPQ. Norges Bank bought a new position in HP in the 4th quarter valued at $229,320,000. State Street Corp grew its position in 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 buying an additional 3,923,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased 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 during the last quarter. KBC Group NV raised its position in HP by 145.1% in the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,555,989 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $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 purchased a new stake in shares of HP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $65,260,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.