Insider Selling: HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Insider Sells 40,287 Shares of Stock

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) insider Alex Cho sold 40,287 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Wednesday, December 11th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.80, for a total value of $1,401,987.60. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,250,724.80. This represents a 38.38 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website.

Alex Cho also recently made the following trade(s):

• On Friday, November 29th, Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of HP stock. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36.

HP Trading Down 0.3 %

HP stock traded down $0.11 during trading on Wednesday, reaching $34.54. The company had a trading volume of 8,183,378 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,858,085. The firm’s 50-day simple moving average is $36.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.82. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.29 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.31, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.09 and a beta of 1.04. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company 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 posted $0.90 EPS. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.35%. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 40.93%.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has approved a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Chris Bulman Inc bought a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in HP by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the period. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new stake in HP in the second quarter worth about $621,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue boosted its position in shares of HP by 11.4% during the third quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 193,700 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $6,947,000 after buying an additional 19,845 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service grew its stake in shares of HP by 24.1% during the third quarter. National Pension Service now owns 2,162,772 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $77,579,000 after buying an additional 419,774 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently issued reports on HPQ shares. TD Cowen boosted their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays raised their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Loop Capital cut their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group upped their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.77.

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.