HP (NYSE:HPQ) Upgraded at StockNews.com

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

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

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $28.52 on Tuesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.97 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.88 billion, a PE ratio of 10.15, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. HP has a 52 week low of $27.43 and a 52 week high of $39.80.

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

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.06%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is 41.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other HP news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Amundi grew its holdings in shares of HP by 15.9% in the 4th quarter. Amundi now owns 6,561,399 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $217,319,000 after buying an additional 899,349 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of HP by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after buying an additional 160,268 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC grew its holdings in shares of HP by 169.3% in the 4th quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,132,000 after buying an additional 21,805 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC grew its holdings in shares of HP by 47.5% in the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $5,259,000 after buying an additional 47,230 shares during the period. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC grew its holdings in shares of HP by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after buying an additional 16,207 shares during the period. 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.