Argyle Capital Management LLC Purchases 6,900 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Argyle Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 21.8% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 38,575 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,900 shares during the period. Argyle Capital Management LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $1,259,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also recently made changes to their positions in the company. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in HP by 8.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after acquiring an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in HP by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477,977 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV grew its position in HP by 145.1% during the 4th quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,555,989 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $116,031,000 after purchasing an additional 2,105,104 shares during the last quarter. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in HP during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $65,260,000. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HP by 11.4% in the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $508,791,000 after buying an additional 1,455,138 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Trading Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $33.15 on Friday. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The business has a 50 day moving average of $33.15 and a two-hundred day moving average of $34.86. The company has a market capitalization of $31.08 billion, a PE ratio of 11.80, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.74. The firm had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. Equities research analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.49%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.93%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities research analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. 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. HSBC cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.68.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, 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 transaction of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total transaction of $4,997,076.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at $3,253,964.40. This represents a 60.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 262,737 shares of company stock worth $9,316,641 in the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

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.