HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Receives Average Rating of "Moderate Buy" from Brokerages

Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) have been assigned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nine analysts that are presently covering the stock, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has given a hold recommendation and seven have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 12-month target price among brokerages that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $33.11.

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Evercore ISI raised HP from an "in-line" rating to an "outperform" rating and upped their price target for the stock from $33.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, December 11th. HSBC raised HP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Morgan Stanley raised HP from an "equal weight" rating to an "overweight" rating and increased their price objective for the stock from $31.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. Barclays increased their price objective on HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, StockNews.com downgraded HP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Activity

In other HP news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of the stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $269,338.44. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.75, for a total value of $1,130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 888,911 shares of the company's stock, valued at $26,445,102.25. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total value of $269,338.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 154,723 shares of company stock valued at $4,609,787 over the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company's stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Large investors have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Wahed Invest LLC raised its position in shares of HP by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 14,750 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $444,000 after buying an additional 954 shares in the last quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC raised its position in shares of HP by 6.9% in the fourth quarter. SageView Advisory Group LLC now owns 13,889 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $405,000 after buying an additional 897 shares in the last quarter. Fisher Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the fourth quarter worth $472,000. Slagle Financial LLC raised its position in shares of HP by 103.8% in the fourth quarter. Slagle Financial LLC now owns 109,358 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $3,291,000 after buying an additional 55,687 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Richardson Financial Services Inc. purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the fourth quarter worth $76,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $30.22. The company's stock had a trading volume of 5,954,070 shares, compared to its average volume of 10,070,602. The firm has a 50 day moving average price of $29.33 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.56. HP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $33.90. The firm has a market capitalization of $29.64 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.84, a PEG ratio of 2.53 and a beta of 1.04.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81. HP had a negative return on equity of 181.02% and a net margin of 6.45%. The business had revenue of $13.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.56 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. The firm's revenue for the quarter was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th will be issued a $0.2756 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, March 12th. HP's dividend payout ratio is presently 32.16%.

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.