Vest Financial LLC Raises Stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Vest Financial LLC increased its stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 39.4% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The firm owned 25,394 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 7,179 shares during the period. Vest Financial LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $829,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. State Street Corp grew its stake 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 purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its position in shares of HP by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after buying an additional 2,477,977 shares in the last quarter. KBC Group NV increased its stake in shares of HP by 145.1% during the fourth quarter. KBC Group NV now owns 3,555,989 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $116,031,000 after buying an additional 2,105,104 shares during the period. 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 valued at $508,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455,138 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bridgewater Associates LP raised its holdings in shares of HP by 2,649.5% in the third quarter. Bridgewater Associates LP now owns 1,318,599 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $47,298,000 after acquiring an additional 1,270,642 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HPQ has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays raised their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Citigroup decreased their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the business’s 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 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 Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $32.26 on Monday. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $30.25 billion, a PE ratio of 11.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a 50-day simple moving average of $33.49 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $34.94.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate 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% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.59%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.93%.

HP 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.