HP (NYSE:HPQ) Cut to “Hold” at HSBC

HP (NYSE:HPQ) was downgraded by HSBC from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report released on Friday,Briefing.com Automated Import reports. They currently have a $38.00 target price on the computer maker’s stock, down from their prior target price of $39.00. HSBC’s target price points to a potential upside of 9.64% from the stock’s previous close.

HPQ has been the subject of several other research reports. Citigroup lowered their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. Barclays lifted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Bank of America downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eight have issued a hold rating and three have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.77.

HP Trading Down 11.4 %

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $34.66 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.33, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.40 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 12-month low of $27.42 and a 12-month high of $39.79. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $36.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. As a group, research analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was 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 owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Chris Bulman Inc purchased a new stake in HP in the second quarter worth about $88,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its holdings in shares of HP by 16.1% in the 3rd quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares in the last quarter. Frank Rimerman Advisors LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $621,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in HP by 154.7% during the first quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 109,493 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,309,000 after buying an additional 66,510 shares during the period. Finally, National Pension Service increased its holdings in 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 period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

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.