HP (NYSE:HPQ) Upgraded by Citigroup to Buy

Citigroup upgraded shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a neutral rating to a buy rating in a research report report published on Monday, MarketBeat.com reports. They currently have $33.00 price target on the computer maker’s stock, up from their prior price target of $31.00.

Other analysts also recently issued reports about the company. Edward Jones upgraded HP from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research report on Tuesday, November 7th. Morgan Stanley upped their price objective on HP from $30.00 to $31.00 and gave the company an equal weight rating in a research report on Wednesday, October 11th. Barclays dropped their target price on HP from $24.00 to $23.00 and set an underweight rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. StockNews.com lowered HP from a strong-buy rating to a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, November 9th. Finally, Bank of America upgraded HP from an underperform rating to a buy rating and upped their target price for the company from $25.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have given a hold rating, four have issued a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP presently has a consensus rating of Moderate Buy and an average price target of $30.82.

HP Stock Performance

HPQ opened at $28.21 on Monday. The business’s fifty day moving average is $26.89 and its two-hundred day moving average is $29.58. The company has a market cap of $27.88 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a PEG ratio of 2.29 and a beta of 1.04. HP has a one year low of $25.22 and a one year high of $33.90.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 29th. The computer maker reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.86. HP had a negative return on equity of 113.55% and a net margin of 4.23%. The business had revenue of $13.20 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.38 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business earned $1.04 earnings per share. The business’s revenue was down 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. On average, analysts predict that HP will post 3.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 13th will be paid a dividend of $0.2756 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, December 12th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.91%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 47.41%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 938,968 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.59, for a total transaction of $27,784,063.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 120,013,850 shares in the company, valued at $3,551,209,821.50. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other news, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 938,968 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, September 11th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.59, for a total value of $27,784,063.12. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 120,013,850 shares in the company, valued at $3,551,209,821.50. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $25.75, for a total value of $978,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 728,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $18,752,901. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 14,457,179 shares of company stock worth $388,231,371 over the last three months. 0.32% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the stock. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. grew its stake in shares of HP by 1,581.7% in the third quarter. Financial Gravity Asset Management Inc. now owns 4,423 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $114,000 after buying an additional 4,160 shares in the last quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC boosted its holdings in HP by 37.1% in the third quarter. Integrated Wealth Concepts LLC now owns 15,481 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $398,000 after purchasing an additional 4,188 shares during the last quarter. Toroso Investments LLC boosted its holdings in HP by 35.6% in the third quarter. Toroso Investments LLC now owns 77,751 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,998,000 after purchasing an additional 20,420 shares during the last quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. boosted its holdings in HP by 91.7% in the third quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 18,368 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $472,000 after purchasing an additional 8,784 shares during the last quarter. Finally, The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company boosted its holdings in HP by 21.3% in the third quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 825,044 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $21,204,000 after purchasing an additional 144,997 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 76.04% of the company’s stock.

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.