HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target Cut to $36.50 by Analysts at Citigroup

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price cut by investment analysts at Citigroup from $37.00 to $36.50 in a report issued on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. The firm presently has a “neutral” rating on the computer maker’s stock. Citigroup’s price objective indicates a potential upside of 3.52% from the company’s previous close.

Several other research firms have also weighed in on HPQ. Barclays upped their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.32.

HP Stock Down 9.8 %

Shares of HPQ traded down $3.84 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, reaching $35.26. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,359,502 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,742,183. The company has a market cap of $33.98 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a fifty day moving average of $36.56 and a 200 day moving average of $35.53. HP has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79.

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. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. On average, analysts predict that HP will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP announced that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. Lazard Asset Management LLC increased its position in HP by 3,567.3% in the 1st quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 34,143 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after buying an additional 33,212 shares during the period. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD increased its position in HP by 1.3% during the first quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,191,666 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $36,013,000 after acquiring an additional 15,675 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its holdings in HP by 15.9% in the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 114,994 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,474,000 after purchasing an additional 15,815 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its position in HP by 373.2% in the 1st quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 48,753 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,473,000 after purchasing an additional 38,450 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC grew its position in HP by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 16,890 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $510,000 after purchasing an additional 2,140 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently 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.