HP (NYSE:HPQ) Cut to “Hold” at StockNews.com

HP (NYSE:HPQ) was downgraded by stock analysts at StockNews.com from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a note issued to investors on Monday.

Several other equities analysts also recently weighed in on HPQ. Citigroup reduced their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. TD Cowen reduced their price target on HP from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have given a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.14.

HP Stock Performance

HPQ stock traded down $0.61 on Monday, reaching $29.94. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 8,848,478 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,189,047. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $32.71 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.61. HP has a 12-month low of $27.43 and a 12-month high of $39.80. The firm has a market cap of $28.22 billion, a PE ratio of 10.65, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

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

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 40,287 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.80, for a total value of $1,401,987.60. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,250,724.80. The trade was a 38.38 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 125,643 shares of company stock valued at $4,319,565. Insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Van ECK Associates Corp increased its stake in HP by 6.0% in the 3rd quarter. Van ECK Associates Corp now owns 37,550 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,346,000 after acquiring an additional 2,139 shares during the last quarter. Concurrent Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $247,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of HP by 16.1% during 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 last quarter. Assetmark Inc. increased its position in shares of HP by 40.8% during the 3rd quarter. Assetmark Inc. now owns 132,269 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $4,745,000 after purchasing an additional 38,331 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Atria Investments Inc increased its position in shares of HP by 8.2% during the 3rd quarter. Atria Investments Inc now owns 61,848 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,218,000 after purchasing an additional 4,712 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.