Brokerages Set HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target at $35.55

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has been given a consensus recommendation of “Hold” by the eleven brokerages that are presently covering the firm, Marketbeat Ratings reports. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, seven have given a hold recommendation and three have assigned a buy recommendation to the company. The average 1-year price objective among brokers that have issued a report on the stock in the last year is $35.55.

Several research firms have issued reports on HPQ. Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Barclays reduced their target price on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their target price on shares of HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th.

HP Trading Up 0.6 %

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $36.72 on Friday. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $35.91 and a 200 day moving average price of $34.92. The company has a market cap of $35.39 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.88, a PEG ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.37 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. On average, equities analysts forecast that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in HP during the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in HP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in HP in the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC boosted its position in HP by 115.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.