HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Increases Dividend to $0.29 Per Share

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) announced a quarterly dividend on Tuesday, November 26th,Wall Street Journal reports. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of 0.2894 per share by the computer maker on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

HP has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.7% annually over the last three years and has raised its dividend every year for the last 14 years. HP has a payout ratio of 30.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect HP to earn $3.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.6%.

HP Stock Down 11.4 %

Shares of HP stock traded down $4.44 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $34.66. 27,022,192 shares of the company were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,848,092. The business has a 50-day moving average price of $36.56 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.53. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a twelve month low of $27.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The business 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. The firm’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, equities research analysts forecast that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

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

Insider Activity

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

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages have weighed in on HPQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Bank of America lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen lifted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Citigroup reduced their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Finally, Barclays lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HP presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.32.

About HP

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.