Sanford C. Bernstein Issues Positive Forecast for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Free Report) had its price target increased by Sanford C. Bernstein from $32.00 to $34.00 in a research report sent to investors on Friday morning,Benzinga reports. Sanford C. Bernstein currently has a market perform rating on the computer maker's stock.

Several other brokerages also recently commented on HPQ. Hsbc Global Res downgraded HP from a "strong-buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a "hold" rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an "overweight" rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. HSBC cut shares of HP from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating and decreased their price target for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Bank of America cut HP from a "buy" rating to a "neutral" rating and set a $37.00 price objective for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company's stock. According to MarketBeat, HP presently has a consensus rating of "Hold" and an average price target of $36.23.

HP Trading Up 2.1 %

HPQ stock traded up $0.67 during mid-day trading on Friday, hitting $33.14. The stock had a trading volume of 5,451,443 shares, compared to its average volume of 5,056,021. The stock has a market capitalization of $31.08 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.79, a PEG ratio of 2.95 and a beta of 1.05. HP has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The company has a fifty day moving average of $35.58 and a 200 day moving average of $35.55.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts' consensus estimates of $0.93. The firm 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 firm's revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.49%. This is a positive change from HP's previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, December 11th. HP's dividend payout ratio is presently 40.93%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, November 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company's stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The shares were sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This trade represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 over the last 90 days. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company's stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Old Port Advisors raised its stake in shares of HP by 5.2% in the fourth quarter. Old Port Advisors now owns 10,116 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $330,000 after acquiring an additional 504 shares during the last quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its position in 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 during the last quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama boosted its stake in HP by 12.4% in the third quarter. Retirement Systems of Alabama now owns 214,072 shares of the computer maker's stock worth $7,679,000 after purchasing an additional 23,693 shares in the last quarter. Franklin Resources Inc. grew its holdings 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 worth $37,712,000 after purchasing an additional 202,613 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Tidal Investments LLC increased its stake in shares of HP by 47.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $5,259,000 after buying an additional 47,230 shares in the last quarter. 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.