Barclays Issues Positive Forecast for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price target raised by Barclays from $35.00 to $36.00 in a research report report published on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also recently commented on HPQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday. HSBC cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. TD Cowen decreased their price target on shares of HP from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. One equities research 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.com, HP has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.59.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $30.75 on Friday. HP has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a 50-day moving average of $33.11 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.84. The stock has a market cap of $28.83 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.94, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.74. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. Analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors 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 yield of 3.77%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 89,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,253,964.40. This trade represents a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, December 13th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.43, for a total transaction of $2,560,077.08. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 56,169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,933,898.67. This represents a 56.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders have sold 262,737 shares of company stock valued at $9,316,641. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

A number of institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,612,000. Brooklyn FI LLC bought a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $9,162,000. Ascent Group LLC raised its position in shares of HP by 2.4% in the fourth quarter. Ascent Group LLC now owns 45,111 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,472,000 after purchasing an additional 1,064 shares during the period. Perennial Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP in the fourth quarter worth $506,000. Finally, Mackenzie Financial Corp grew its stake in shares of HP by 3.9% in the fourth quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 282,750 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $9,226,000 after acquiring an additional 10,492 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% 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.