HP (NYSE:HPQ) Sets New 1-Year High – Here’s What Happened

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)’s share price reached a new 52-week high during trading on Monday . The company traded as high as $39.58 and last traded at $39.53, with a volume of 2347595 shares. The stock had previously closed at $38.13.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on HPQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their price objective on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group boosted their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Bank of America lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target on the stock. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.32.

HP Price Performance

The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $35.52. The stock has a market cap of $33.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. HP’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.34%. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 38.60%.

HP announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Chris Bulman Inc acquired a new stake in HP during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its stake in shares of HP by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP during the second quarter worth $621,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its stake in HP by 154.7% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 109,493 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,309,000 after buying an additional 66,510 shares during the last quarter. Finally, National Pension Service lifted its holdings in HP by 24.1% in the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,162,772 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $77,579,000 after buying an additional 419,774 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.