HP (NYSE:HPQ) Shares Gap Down on Analyst Downgrade

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)’s share price gapped down before the market opened on Wednesday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $37.00 to $36.50. The stock had previously closed at $39.10, but opened at $36.56. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. HP shares last traded at $35.45, with a volume of 2,625,390 shares trading hands.

A number of other research firms have also weighed in on HPQ. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital decreased their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price objective on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.32.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Lazard Asset Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of HP by 3,567.3% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 34,143 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 33,212 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD lifted its position in shares of HP by 1.3% in the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,191,666 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $36,013,000 after purchasing an additional 15,675 shares during the period. California State Teachers Retirement System boosted its stake in shares of HP by 6.8% during the first quarter. California State Teachers Retirement System now owns 1,577,195 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $47,663,000 after purchasing an additional 101,069 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in HP by 15.9% during the first quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 114,994 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,474,000 after buying an additional 15,815 shares during the period. Finally, Coppell Advisory Solutions Corp. purchased a new position in HP during the first quarter valued at approximately $225,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Down 12.9 %

The business’s 50 day moving average is $36.56 and its 200 day moving average is $35.53. The company has a market cap of $32.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.44, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

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

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.