TD Cowen Issues Positive Forecast for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price boosted by TD Cowen from $32.00 to $39.00 in a research report sent to investors on Wednesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. The firm currently has a hold rating on the computer maker’s stock.

Several other analysts have also weighed in on the company. UBS Group increased their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on 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 HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price on the stock. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital reduced their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Barclays reduced their target price on HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.77.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ opened at $35.43 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $36.57 and its 200 day moving average is $35.56. HP has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.14 billion, a PE ratio of 12.61, a PEG ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings results 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 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

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

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.27%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its position in HP by 1.2% during the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $857,000 after purchasing an additional 278 shares in the last quarter. Castleview Partners LLC boosted its position in HP by 8.1% during the third quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc boosted its position in HP by 5.9% during the third quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,321 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp boosted its position in HP by 3.2% during the third quarter. King Luther Capital Management Corp now owns 9,635 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $346,000 after purchasing an additional 303 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Arvest Investments Inc. boosted its position in HP by 0.9% during the third quarter. Arvest Investments Inc. now owns 34,355 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,232,000 after purchasing an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.