Hilltop Holdings Inc. Acquires 14,703 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Hilltop Holdings Inc. grew its stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 41.5% during the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 50,109 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,703 shares during the period. Hilltop Holdings Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $1,797,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

A number of other hedge funds have also modified their holdings of HPQ. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC acquired a new position in HP during the third quarter worth $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter worth about $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. acquired a new position in HP in the second quarter valued at about $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC grew its stake in HP by 115.1% during the third quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $35,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the last quarter. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC acquired a new stake in shares of HP during the third quarter worth approximately $37,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $36.79 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $35.46 billion, a PE ratio of 13.09, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.11 and a beta of 1.04. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $36.62 and a 200-day moving average of $35.70. HP Inc. has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.15%. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 39.15%.

HP announced that its board has initiated a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are typically a sign that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HPQ has been the topic of a number of research analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays lifted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. HSBC lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and decreased their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have given a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, HP has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP 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.