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

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price upped by Barclays from $32.00 to $35.00 in a research report released on Wednesday,Benzinga reports. Barclays currently has an equal weight rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages also recently issued reports on HPQ. Bank of America downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Loop Capital cut their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Morgan Stanley cut their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, UBS Group upped their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.32.

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $34.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a fifty day moving average of $36.56 and a two-hundred day moving average of $35.52. The company has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts forecast that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is 38.60%.

Insider Activity at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99.48. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. State Street Corp raised its position in HP by 8.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in HP by 11.1% in the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477,977 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its position in HP by 6.2% in the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $786,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319,731 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its stake in shares of HP by 11.4% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $508,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455,138 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Legal & General Group Plc raised its stake in shares of HP by 11.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $375,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,848 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.