abrdn plc Acquires 212,458 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

abrdn plc lifted its holdings in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Free Report) by 22.1% in the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 1,172,242 shares of the computer maker's stock after buying an additional 212,458 shares during the period. abrdn plc owned about 0.12% of HP worth $35,273,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other large investors have also modified their holdings of HPQ. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its stake in shares of HP by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,509,674 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $3,019,999,000 after buying an additional 12,883,347 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in HP by 4,180.9% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,516,510 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $286,352,000 after purchasing an additional 9,294,209 shares in the last quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in HP by 145.9% in the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 6,090,872 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $156,535,000 after purchasing an additional 3,613,742 shares in the last quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in HP by 104.6% in the 3rd quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 4,352,558 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $112,014,000 after purchasing an additional 2,225,530 shares in the last quarter. Finally, J.P. Morgan Private Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at approximately $54,302,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays raised their price objective on HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. HSBC raised HP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and raised their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, StockNews.com cut HP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "buy" rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average target price of $33.11.

Insider Transactions at HP

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

HP Stock Down 0.1 %

Shares of HPQ stock traded down $0.02 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $27.68. 6,115,483 shares of the company's stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 7,964,501. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $33.90. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $29.32 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.83. The stock has a market cap of $27.15 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.10, a PEG ratio of 2.33 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate 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 analysts' expectations of $13.56 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. The business's revenue was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.2756 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.98%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. HP's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 32.16%.

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.