Rockland Trust Co. Trims Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Rockland Trust Co. trimmed its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 1.6% in the 4th quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 299,311 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 4,762 shares during the quarter. Rockland Trust Co.’s holdings in HP were worth $9,767,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Other large investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. boosted its position in shares of HP by 16.1% during 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 acquiring an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its position in HP by 47.5% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $5,259,000 after purchasing an additional 47,230 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC grew its stake in HP by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,243,000 after buying an additional 16,207 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. increased its holdings in shares of HP by 25.2% in the 3rd quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $37,712,000 after buying an additional 202,613 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at $621,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

HP Stock Up 0.1 %

HPQ opened at $32.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.63 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.62, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.05. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $35.05 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.40. HP Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The business 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%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were given a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.93%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms recently commented on HPQ. HSBC cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, November 29th. TD Cowen raised their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target on the stock. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.23.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The shares were 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 in the company, valued at $1,933,898.67. This trade represents a 56.97 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction 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 completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 in the last three months. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.