HP (NYSE:HPQ) Shares Gap Up After Analyst Upgrade

Key Points

• HP Inc. shares surged after UBS Group raised their price target from $26.00 to $29.00, leading to an opening price of $28.38.
• Analysts' ratings are mixed, with two analysts rating the stock as a Buy, while others have set target prices ranging from $25.00 to $35.00.
• The company reported quarterly earnings matching expectations at $0.75 per share, with revenues of $13.93 billion, and has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.2894 per share.

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) gapped up prior to trading on Thursday after UBS Group raised their price target on the stock from $26.00 to $29.00. The stock had previously closed at $27.11, but opened at $28.38. UBS Group currently has a neutral rating on the stock. HP shares last traded at $28.07, with a volume of 4,517,044 shares.

A number of other equities analysts have also recently commented on the company. Wells Fargo & Company reduced their target price on HP from $35.00 to $25.00 and set an "underweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on HP from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on HP from $29.00 to $26.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Barclays set a $28.00 target price on HP and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Thursday, May 29th. Finally, Bank of America reduced their target price on HP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a "neutral" rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, thirteen have assigned a Hold rating and one has issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $29.71.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. Nuveen LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP during the first quarter worth $179,037,000. Norges Bank purchased a new position in HP in the second quarter valued at $91,698,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd acquired a new stake in HP in the second quarter valued at $74,385,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in HP by 1.9% in the second quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 126,536,318 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $3,095,078,000 after buying an additional 2,395,056 shares in the last quarter. Finally, First Trust Advisors LP raised its stake in HP by 93.9% in the second quarter. First Trust Advisors LP now owns 4,874,334 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $119,226,000 after buying an additional 2,360,678 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HP Price Performance

The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $25.59 and a 200 day moving average price of $26.88. The firm has a market cap of $26.36 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.78, a PEG ratio of 2.19 and a beta of 1.29.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 27th. The computer maker reported $0.75 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.75. The company had revenue of $13.93 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.69 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 3.1% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.83 EPS. HP has set its Q4 2025 guidance at 0.870-0.97 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 1st. Shareholders 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 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.1%. HP's payout ratio 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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