Hennessy Advisors Inc. Reduces Stock Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Hennessy Advisors Inc. lessened its stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Free Report) by 3.5% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The fund owned 249,600 shares of the computer maker's stock after selling 9,000 shares during the quarter. Hennessy Advisors Inc.'s holdings in HP were worth $8,144,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other large investors have also modified their holdings of HPQ. KMG Fiduciary Partners LLC purchased a new position in HP in the fourth quarter worth $1,633,000. Ritholtz Wealth Management raised its position in HP by 1.3% in the fourth quarter. Ritholtz Wealth Management now owns 97,423 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $3,179,000 after acquiring an additional 1,228 shares in the last quarter. Hennion & Walsh Asset Management Inc. purchased a new position in HP in the fourth quarter worth $530,000. Stolper Co raised its position in HP by 1.4% in the fourth quarter. Stolper Co now owns 206,119 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $6,726,000 after acquiring an additional 2,838 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Park Avenue Securities LLC raised its position in HP by 7.2% in the fourth quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 43,171 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $1,409,000 after acquiring an additional 2,897 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company's stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have issued reports on HPQ shares. Hsbc Global Res cut HP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays upped their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an "equal weight" rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a "market perform" rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Bank of America lowered HP from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $37.00 target price on the stock. in a report on Friday, September 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $36.23.

HP Stock Up 0.6 %

Shares of HPQ traded up $0.18 during trading hours on Friday, reaching $32.53. 8,455,648 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 5,433,404. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $34.87 and a 200 day simple moving average of $35.36. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.51 billion, a PE ratio of 11.58, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same period in the prior year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. The firm's revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Research analysts predict 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 given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from HP's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.56%. HP's dividend payout ratio is 41.28%.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available through this hyperlink. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The stock was 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 approximately $2,219,680.32. This trade represents a 13.74 % 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 worth $9,670,068 in the last three months. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

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.