Hennessy Advisors Inc. Decreases Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lessened its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 3.5% during the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 249,600 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 9,000 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $8,144,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also made changes to their positions in the company. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC purchased a new position in HP during the fourth quarter worth approximately $1,633,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in HP by 1.3% during the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 97,423 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,179,000 after buying an additional 1,228 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in HP during the fourth quarter worth approximately $530,000. Stolper Co lifted its position in HP by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Stolper Co now owns 206,119 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $6,726,000 after buying an additional 2,838 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC lifted its position in HP by 7.2% during the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 43,171 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,409,000 after buying an additional 2,897 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of brokerages recently commented on HPQ. Hsbc Global Res downgraded HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. HSBC downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment 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’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, HP presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $32.39 on Friday. The stock’s 50-day moving average is $34.97 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.38. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $30.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.53, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. HP’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.57%. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.28%.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.