Insider Selling: HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) CEO Sells $4,997,076.30 in Stock

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total transaction of $4,997,076.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website.

Enrique Lores also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Thursday, September 12th, Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16.

HP Stock Up 1.2 %

HPQ opened at $34.98 on Friday. The company has a market capitalization of $33.71 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.45, a PEG ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a 50-day moving average price of $36.63 and a 200-day moving average price of $35.81. HP Inc. has a twelve month low of $27.42 and a twelve month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced 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. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

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 issued a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.31%. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in 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 usually an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of HPQ. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC lifted its position in HP by 22.5% in the second quarter. Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC now owns 22,581 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $791,000 after purchasing an additional 4,143 shares during the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital lifted its position in HP by 21.9% during the second quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 11,285 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $415,000 after purchasing an additional 2,028 shares in the last quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 4.2% in the second quarter. Wealth Enhancement Advisory Services LLC now owns 196,208 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $6,871,000 after purchasing an additional 7,858 shares during the period. ORG Partners LLC grew its position in shares of HP by 241.0% during the second quarter. ORG Partners LLC now owns 1,913 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $67,000 after purchasing an additional 1,352 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. grew its stake in HP by 5.6% during the second quarter. Envestnet Portfolio Solutions Inc. now owns 96,571 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,382,000 after acquiring an additional 5,114 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on HPQ shares. HSBC downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Morgan Stanley dropped their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital cut their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res cut shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.45.

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.