HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price Expected to Rise, Sanford C. Bernstein Analyst Says

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price increased by Sanford C. Bernstein from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research report released on Friday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has a market perform rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Other research analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Bank of America downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup cut their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Loop Capital cut their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

HPQ opened at $33.14 on Friday. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.08 billion, a PE ratio of 11.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.05. The business’s 50-day moving average is $35.50 and its two-hundred day moving average is $35.53. HP has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. HP’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s payout ratio is currently 40.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.43, for a total transaction of $2,560,077.08. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 56,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,933,898.67. The trade was a 56.97 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the company. LVW Advisors LLC grew its position in HP by 1.2% in the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $857,000 after acquiring an additional 278 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC raised its stake in shares of HP by 8.1% in 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 during the period. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position 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 purchasing an additional 297 shares during the period. King Luther Capital Management Corp raised its position in HP by 3.2% in the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares during the period. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. boosted its position in shares of HP by 0.9% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,232,000 after buying an additional 310 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.