Barclays Cuts HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target to $24.00

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price reduced by Barclays from $27.00 to $24.00 in a report published on Wednesday morning,Benzinga reports. They currently have an equal weight rating on the computer maker’s stock.

A number of other research firms have also recently commented on HPQ. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $21.00 to $20.00 and set an “underweight” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Weiss Ratings restated a “hold (c)” rating on shares of HP in a research note on Wednesday, October 8th. Zacks Research raised shares of HP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, August 19th. Bank of America dropped their price objective on HP from $29.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Friday, November 21st. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein began coverage on shares of HP in a report on Monday, September 15th. They set a “market perform” rating and a $30.00 price target for the company. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, one has given a Buy rating, fourteen have issued a Hold rating and two have assigned a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $25.69.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $24.39 on Wednesday. HP has a 52 week low of $21.21 and a 52 week high of $36.93. The stock has a 50 day moving average price of $26.27 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.33. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.80 billion, a PE ratio of 8.90, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.28.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 25th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.91 by $0.02. The business had revenue of $14.64 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $14.50 billion. HP had a net margin of 4.83% and a negative return on equity of 262.03%. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 4.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.93 earnings per share. HP has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.200 EPS. Q1 2026 guidance at 0.730-0.810 EPS. As a group, research analysts forecast that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Thursday, December 11th will be paid a $0.30 dividend. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.29. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, December 11th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 43.40%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 18,154 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Wednesday, October 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $27.88, for a total transaction of $506,133.52. Following the sale, the insider owned 169 shares in the company, valued at $4,711.72. This represents a 99.08% decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 34,282 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $26.85, for a total value of $920,471.70. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer owned 3 shares in the company, valued at $80.55. The trade was a 99.99% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale is available in the SEC filing. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. boosted its holdings in HP by 17.1% in the first quarter. Avantax Advisory Services Inc. now owns 57,357 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,588,000 after acquiring an additional 8,358 shares in the last quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers boosted its holdings in HP by 14.6% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 165,042 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $4,570,000 after acquiring an additional 21,033 shares during the last quarter. LPL Financial LLC grew its position in HP by 0.7% in the 1st quarter. LPL Financial LLC now owns 418,733 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $11,595,000 after purchasing an additional 2,763 shares in the last quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp increased its position in shares of HP by 0.3% during the first quarter. Mackenzie Financial Corp now owns 283,483 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $7,850,000 after acquiring an additional 733 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Meeder Advisory Services Inc. increased its holdings in HP by 19.7% during the first quarter. Meeder Advisory Services Inc. now owns 20,758 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $575,000 after buying an additional 3,410 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.