Sentry Investment Management LLC Acquires New Shares in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Sentry Investment Management LLC acquired a new stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor acquired 3,756 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $123,000.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HP by 16.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after acquiring an additional 160,268 shares in the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC raised its holdings in HP by 169.3% in the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,132,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its holdings in HP by 47.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $5,259,000 after purchasing an additional 47,230 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC raised its holdings in HP by 35.0% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,243,000 after purchasing an additional 16,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its holdings in HP by 4.3% in the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 446,848 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $14,581,000 after purchasing an additional 18,557 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the transaction, 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 sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,002.50. The trade was a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

HP Stock Down 1.0 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $33.76 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $33.14 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.87. The firm has a market cap of $31.66 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.01, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. HP’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, research analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.43%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts have commented on HPQ shares. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. HSBC downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.68.

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.