Morgan Stanley Has Lowered Expectations for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price reduced by stock analysts at Morgan Stanley from $29.00 to $26.00 in a research report issued on Thursday,Benzinga reports. The brokerage presently has an “equal weight” rating on the computer maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s target price suggests a potential upside of 4.50% from the stock’s previous close.

A number of other equities research analysts have also recently commented on HPQ. TD Cowen lowered their target price on HP from $38.00 to $28.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. Bank of America lowered their target price on HP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on HP from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. KGI Securities began coverage on HP in a report on Thursday. They set a “neutral” rating on the stock. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on HP from $40.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.54.

HP Price Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $24.88 on Thursday. HP has a 1-year low of $21.21 and a 1-year high of $39.80. The company has a market capitalization of $23.45 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.85, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.32. The business has a 50 day moving average price of $25.95 and a 200 day moving average price of $30.69.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 28th. The computer maker reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.09). HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The firm had revenue of $13.22 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.09 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.82 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. On average, research analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Transactions at HP

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

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Norges Bank acquired a new position in HP in the fourth quarter valued at $229,320,000. Nuveen LLC acquired a new position in HP in the first quarter valued at $179,037,000. C2P Capital Advisory Group LLC d.b.a. Prosperity Capital Advisors acquired a new position in HP in the fourth quarter valued at $65,260,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH acquired a new position in HP in the fourth quarter valued at $63,612,000. Finally, Invesco Ltd. raised its position in HP by 19.2% in the first quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,340,629 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $314,022,000 after purchasing an additional 1,829,411 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.