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

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) has earned an average recommendation of "Moderate Buy" from the nine research firms that are covering the company, MarketBeat Ratings reports. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, one has assigned 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.

Several equities research analysts recently commented on the stock. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. HSBC raised shares of 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. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of HP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total value of $2,010,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 60,216 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,807,082.16. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. In related news, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total transaction of $2,010,670.00. Following the completion of the sale, the director now owns 60,216 shares in the company, valued at approximately $1,807,082.16. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. Also, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 41,015 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.24, for a total transaction of $1,199,278.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 56,169 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $1,642,381.56. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last quarter, insiders sold 116,723 shares of company stock worth $3,479,287. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the business. WASHINGTON TRUST Co increased its position in HP by 47.3% during the 1st quarter. WASHINGTON TRUST Co now owns 4,040 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $122,000 after purchasing an additional 1,298 shares during the period. Summit Trail Advisors LLC grew its position in shares of HP by 19.4% in the 1st quarter. Summit Trail Advisors LLC now owns 8,212 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $250,000 after buying an additional 1,335 shares during the last quarter. PFG Investments LLC grew its position in shares of HP by 216.3% in the 1st quarter. PFG Investments LLC now owns 25,317 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $765,000 after buying an additional 17,313 shares during the last quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI grew its position in shares of HP by 13.2% in the 1st quarter. Parsons Capital Management Inc. RI now owns 55,047 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $1,664,000 after buying an additional 6,405 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Raymond James & Associates grew its position in shares of HP by 4.9% in the 1st quarter. Raymond James & Associates now owns 397,539 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $12,014,000 after buying an additional 18,741 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company's stock.

HP Trading Down 0.1 %

Shares of HP stock traded down $0.02 on Tuesday, hitting $27.68. 6,115,483 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,964,501. The firm's 50-day simple moving average is $29.31 and its 200 day simple moving average is $28.84. The company has a market cap of $27.15 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.09, a P/E/G ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.05. HP has a 12-month low of $25.22 and a 12-month high of $33.90.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.81. The company had revenue of $13.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $13.56 billion. HP had a net margin of 6.45% and a negative return on equity of 181.02%. The firm's revenue was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Analysts predict that HP will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were given a dividend of $0.2756 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.98%. HP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is currently 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.