HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Stake Reduced by First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. lessened its stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 9.8% during the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 78,251 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 8,501 shares during the quarter. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in HP were worth $2,553,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased 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 purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in HP by 47.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $5,259,000 after buying an additional 47,230 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC grew its holdings in HP by 169.3% during the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,132,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC grew its holdings in HP by 35.0% during the third 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, Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings in HP by 25.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $37,712,000 after purchasing an additional 202,613 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HPQ has been the topic of several research analyst reports. TD Cowen raised their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. 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. HSBC lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.23.

HP Trading Down 2.0 %

HP stock opened at $32.73 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.69 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.65, a PEG ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The business has a 50-day moving average of $34.38 and a 200-day moving average of $35.27.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.54%. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was 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 directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Company Profile

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.