Empirical Finance LLC Boosts Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Empirical Finance LLC raised its stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 27.7% during the 4th quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The fund owned 68,057 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 14,778 shares during the quarter. Empirical Finance LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $2,221,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors have also modified their holdings of HPQ. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at about $26,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC increased its stake in shares of HP by 115.1% during the third quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $35,000 after acquiring an additional 518 shares during the period. ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new position in HP during the third quarter worth about $37,000. Finally, Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. acquired a new stake in HP in the third quarter valued at about $40,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HPQ has been the topic of several recent analyst reports. TD Cowen boosted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. HSBC lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.23.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction 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 sale, 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 ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of HP 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 directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068 in the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Price Performance

HPQ stock opened at $32.26 on Monday. HP Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $30.25 billion, a PE ratio of 11.48, a P/E/G ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $33.49 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.94.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly 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 company had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 earnings per share. HP’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.59%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.93%.

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.