HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Wells Fargo & Company Analyst Says

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price objective raised by Wells Fargo & Company from $30.00 to $35.00 in a research note issued to investors on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an underweight rating on the computer maker’s stock.

HPQ has been the topic of several other reports. Barclays boosted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Hsbc Global Res cut shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, HSBC lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.68.

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $34.63 on Thursday. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $33.10 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $34.84. HP has a 52-week low of $27.42 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The firm has a market cap of $32.48 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.32, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The business 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 firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total value of $4,997,076.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at $3,253,964.40. This represents a 60.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. 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 sale, the insider now owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of HP by 16.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after acquiring an additional 160,268 shares in the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC boosted its position in HP by 169.3% in the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,132,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC grew its stake in 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 purchasing an additional 47,230 shares during the period. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 35.0% during the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 16,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its stake in shares of HP by 4.3% during the 4th quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 446,848 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $14,581,000 after purchasing an additional 18,557 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by 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.