Alex Cho Sells 10,298 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Stock

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. This trade represents a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link.

HP Price Performance

HPQ stock opened at $36.79 on Wednesday. HP Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.46 billion, a PE ratio of 13.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.04. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.62 and a 200-day simple moving average of $35.70.

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

HP announced that its board has approved a stock buyback plan 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 plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.15%. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 39.15%.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Large investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of 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 acquiring an additional 3,923,161 shares during the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477,977 shares during the period. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in HP in the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $62,672,000. DME Capital Management LP raised its position in HP by 108.7% in the second quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 3,373,030 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $118,124,000 after purchasing an additional 1,757,070 shares during the period. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in HP by 11.4% during the third quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $508,791,000 after purchasing an additional 1,455,138 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. UBS Group upped their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Bank of America lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a report on Friday, September 27th. HSBC cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.77.

HP Company 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.