Westpac Banking Corp Purchases 26,316 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Westpac Banking Corp lifted its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 24.6% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 133,275 shares of the computer maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 26,316 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in HP were worth $4,349,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in HP during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in HP during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in HP during the 4th quarter valued at about $37,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new stake in HP during the third quarter worth about $40,000. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter worth about $50,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have recently commented on the company. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price target on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays upped their price target on shares of HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Tuesday, March 4th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.14.

HP Price Performance

HPQ stock opened at $27.91 on Thursday. HP Inc. has a 1 year low of $26.10 and a 1 year high of $39.80. The stock’s fifty day moving average price is $31.17 and its 200-day moving average price is $33.86. The company has a market cap of $26.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.93, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.74. The firm had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. As a group, analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th were paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.15%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.37%.

Insider Activity at HP

In related news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total value of $453,734.00. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total transaction of $613,817.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,814.81. This trade represents a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.