HP (NYSE:HPQ) Shares Gap Down Following Analyst Downgrade

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)’s share price gapped down prior to trading on Wednesday after Citigroup lowered their price target on the stock from $37.00 to $36.50. The stock had previously closed at $39.10, but opened at $36.56. Citigroup currently has a neutral rating on the stock. HP shares last traded at $35.45, with a volume of 2,625,390 shares.

A number of other brokerages also recently commented on HPQ. Bank of America downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company. in a report on Friday, September 27th. TD Cowen raised their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Loop Capital reduced their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Barclays raised their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.32.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % 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. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. State Street Corp lifted its position in HP by 8.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,871,046,000 after purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its position in shares of HP by 11.1% during the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $885,877,000 after buying an additional 2,477,977 shares in the last quarter. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at approximately $62,672,000. DME Capital Management LP increased its holdings in HP by 108.7% in the 2nd quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 3,373,030 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $118,124,000 after acquiring an additional 1,757,070 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its holdings in HP by 11.4% in the 3rd quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,184,306 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $508,791,000 after acquiring an additional 1,455,138 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Trading Down 12.9 %

The company has a market cap of $32.82 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.44, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. The business’s 50 day simple moving average is $36.56 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.53.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The business’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. Sell-side analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

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.