Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank Buys 502,890 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank grew its position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 70.9% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 1,211,779 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 502,890 shares during the quarter. Zurcher Kantonalbank Zurich Cantonalbank owned 0.13% of HP worth $43,467,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in HP in the third quarter worth about $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP in the second quarter worth approximately $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. bought a new stake in HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC increased its holdings in HP by 115.1% during the third 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 bought a new position in HP in the third quarter worth approximately $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HP Stock Down 11.4 %

HPQ opened at $34.66 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.52. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting 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 during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

HP Increases Dividend

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

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HPQ has been the subject of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price objective on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays raised their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. 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 note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.32.

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.