First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. Sells 8,501 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

First Citizens Bank & Trust Co. decreased its holdings in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 9.8% in the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 78,251 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 8,501 shares during the period. First Citizens Bank & Trust Co.’s holdings in HP were worth $2,553,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its position in shares of HP by 16.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after acquiring an additional 160,268 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 47.5% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $5,259,000 after acquiring an additional 47,230 shares in the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 169.3% during the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,132,000 after acquiring an additional 21,805 shares in the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 35.0% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after acquiring an additional 16,207 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Franklin Resources Inc. increased its position in shares of HP by 25.2% during the third quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. now owns 1,007,270 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $37,712,000 after acquiring an additional 202,613 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities research analysts recently weighed in on HPQ shares. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. HSBC downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their target price for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.23.

HP Stock Down 2.0 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $32.73 on Monday. The firm has a market cap of $30.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.65, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a 52-week low of $27.42 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $34.38 and its 200-day simple moving average is $35.27.

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

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.54%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. This trade represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total transaction of $4,997,076.30. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at $3,253,964.40. This represents a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068 in the last ninety days. Company insiders own 0.41% 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.