HP (NYSE:HPQ) Upgraded at Barclays

Barclays upgraded shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from an underweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research report released on Tuesday morning, MarketBeat Ratings reports. They currently have $30.00 price target on the computer maker’s stock, up from their previous price target of $24.00.

Several other equities research analysts have also recently issued reports on HPQ. HSBC upgraded HP from a hold rating to a buy rating and boosted their price target for the company from $30.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com cut HP from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Bank of America boosted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, HP currently has an average rating of Moderate Buy and a consensus price target of $34.00.

HP Stock Down 1.1 %

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $32.65 on Tuesday. HP has a 12-month low of $25.22 and a 12-month high of $33.90. The stock has a market cap of $32.02 billion, a PE ratio of 9.55, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.06. The business has a 50 day moving average of $29.47 and a 200-day moving average of $29.31.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) 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 company had revenue of $13.19 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.75 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. Equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, July 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2756 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 12th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.38%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 32.16%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 41,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 56,169 shares in the company, valued at $1,642,381.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In related news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 41,015 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 56,169 shares in the company, valued at $1,642,381.56. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. Also, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of the stock in a transaction on 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $1,807,082.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last ninety days, insiders sold 116,723 shares of company stock worth $3,479,287. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. Swedbank AB acquired a new stake in HP in the first quarter valued at $21,286,000. Wahed Invest LLC grew its holdings in HP by 14.5% during the 1st quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 16,890 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $510,000 after acquiring an additional 2,140 shares during the period. Plato Investment Management Ltd grew its holdings in HP by 2,356.2% during the 1st quarter. Plato Investment Management Ltd now owns 69,045 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,087,000 after acquiring an additional 66,234 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. grew its holdings in HP by 373.2% during the 1st quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 48,753 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,473,000 after acquiring an additional 38,450 shares during the period. Finally, LBP AM SA grew its holdings in HP by 38.4% during the 1st quarter. LBP AM SA now owns 306,266 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $9,255,000 after acquiring an additional 84,897 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

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.