HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Receives Consensus Recommendation of “Hold” from Brokerages

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) has been assigned a consensus recommendation of “Hold” from the twelve ratings firms that are currently covering the firm, MarketBeat reports. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell recommendation, five have assigned a hold recommendation and six have issued a buy recommendation on the company. The average 1-year price target among analysts that have issued ratings on the stock in the last year is $35.55.

Several brokerages have issued reports on HPQ. TD Cowen boosted their target price on HP from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup increased their target price on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays lowered their target price on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

A number of large investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 2nd quarter valued at $1,549,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in HP during the second quarter valued at about $3,373,000. PVG Asset Management Corp purchased a new position in HP in the second quarter valued at about $212,000. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in HP by 14.5% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 125,398 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $4,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,905 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its position in shares of HP by 4.5% during the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 176,513 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $6,181,000 after buying an additional 7,678 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $36.85 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $35.02 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.15. HP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $39.52. The company has a market cap of $36.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.45, a P/E/G ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.37 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. The company’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts predict that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are generally an indication that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

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.