Verdence Capital Advisors LLC Takes Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Verdence Capital Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Free Report) during the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund purchased 14,492 shares of the computer maker's stock, valued at approximately $401,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the business. Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in HP by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,350,016 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $825,398,000 after purchasing an additional 579,525 shares in the last quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC grew its stake in HP by 23.6% in the fourth quarter. Gotham Asset Management LLC now owns 639,423 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $20,864,000 after purchasing an additional 122,289 shares in the last quarter. Resona Asset Management Co. Ltd. purchased a new position in HP in the fourth quarter valued at about $9,481,000. BayBridge Capital Group LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP in the first quarter worth about $1,505,000. Finally, National Bank of Canada FI lifted its position in shares of HP by 71.7% in the fourth quarter. National Bank of Canada FI now owns 698,376 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $22,788,000 after buying an additional 291,525 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company's stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts have weighed in on the company. UBS Group reduced their price target on HP from $37.00 to $26.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays set a $28.00 price objective on HP and gave the stock an "equal weight" rating in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on HP from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Dbs Bank cut HP from a "moderate buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Wednesday, June 11th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised HP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research report on Monday, May 12th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $29.54.

HP Stock Up 1.3%

HPQ stock opened at $25.06 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $23.54 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.68, a PEG ratio of 2.03 and a beta of 1.27. HP Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.21 and a twelve month high of $39.80. The business has a fifty day moving average of $25.86 and a 200-day moving average of $28.16.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The computer maker reported $0.71 EPS for the quarter, missing analysts' consensus estimates of $0.80 by ($0.09). The company had revenue of $13.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.09 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 244.99% and a net margin of 4.64%. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.82 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.62%. HP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 44.79%.

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.

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