Simplicity Solutions LLC Sells 988 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Simplicity Solutions LLC lowered its holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 5.1% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 18,470 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 988 shares during the period. Simplicity Solutions LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $556,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of HPQ. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P raised its holdings in shares of HP by 89.9% in the 1st quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P now owns 873,243 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $31,698,000 after acquiring an additional 413,491 shares in the last quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board raised its holdings in shares of HP by 46.6% during the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 305,877 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $11,103,000 after buying an additional 97,178 shares in the last quarter. Prudential PLC purchased a new position in shares of HP during the 1st quarter valued at about $892,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of HP by 6.8% during the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 17,651 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $641,000 after buying an additional 1,121 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP during the 1st quarter valued at about $309,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HP stock opened at $27.62 on Friday. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.35 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $28.77. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.09 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.08, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a one year low of $25.22 and a one year high of $33.90.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81. The firm had revenue of $13.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.56 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 181.02% and a net margin of 6.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Sell-side analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were given a $0.2756 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.99%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.16%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total value of $269,338.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total value of $269,338.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total value of $2,010,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 60,216 shares in the company, valued at $1,807,082.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 116,723 shares of company stock worth $3,479,287. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HPQ. StockNews.com cut HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Barclays raised their price objective on HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, HSBC raised HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $33.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.11.

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.