Avanza Fonder AB Purchases Shares of 100,770 HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Avanza Fonder AB purchased a new stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel reports. The firm purchased 100,770 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $3,288,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its position in HP by 8.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,871,046,000 after buying an additional 3,923,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in HP by 11.1% during the third quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $885,877,000 after buying an additional 2,477,977 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its position in HP by 11.4% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $508,791,000 after buying an additional 1,455,138 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc boosted its position in HP by 11.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $375,079,000 after buying an additional 1,089,848 shares during the period. Finally, UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its position in HP by 7.7% during the third quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,581,422 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $307,816,000 after buying an additional 612,675 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Activity

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 40,287 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.80, for a total value of $1,401,987.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,250,724.80. The trade was a 38.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was 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 owns 89,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on the stock. 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 report on Friday, September 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. HSBC lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Barclays increased their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $32.53 on Friday. HP Inc. has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $34.87 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.36. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.51 billion, a PE ratio of 11.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same period last year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th were issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.56%. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.28%.

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.