Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC Cuts Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC cut its stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 37.9% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 1,088 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 665 shares during the quarter. Catalyst Capital Advisors LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $36,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 4th quarter valued at $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $44,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on HPQ shares. Sanford C. Bernstein raised their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. HSBC lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their target price for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup reduced their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.23.

Insider Transactions at HP

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’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 of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’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 completion of the transaction, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $204,002.50. The trade was 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 worth $9,670,068 over the last quarter. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $34.17 on Wednesday. The business’s 50-day simple moving average is $33.11 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.81. The company has a market cap of $32.04 billion, a PE ratio of 12.16, a PEG ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates 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 quarter in the prior year, the business earned $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.39%. HP’s payout ratio is 40.93%.

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.