Citigroup Lowers HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target to $36.50

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price objective trimmed by Citigroup from $37.00 to $36.50 in a research report report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a neutral rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other brokerages have also issued reports on HPQ. Loop Capital dropped their price target on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group raised their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. 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 note on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Finally, TD Cowen boosted their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.77.

HP Trading Up 2.2 %

Shares of HPQ opened at $35.43 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $36.57 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.56. The company has a market cap of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 40.93%.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to reacquire up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction 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 owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the stock. LVW Advisors LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 1.2% during the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $857,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC boosted its position in HP by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $138,000 after acquiring an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its holdings in shares of HP by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,321 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $191,000 after acquiring an additional 297 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its position in shares of HP by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $346,000 after acquiring an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. lifted its stake in shares of HP by 0.9% in the 3rd quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares during the period. 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.