HP (NYSE:HPQ) Announces Earnings Results, Meets Estimates

HP (NYSE:HPQ) issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93, Briefing.com reports. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.90 EPS. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $34.66 on Thursday. HP has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $36.56 and its 200-day moving average is $35.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.16, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.34%. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s payout ratio is presently 38.60%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on HPQ. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective 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. TD Cowen upped 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. Barclays lifted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, UBS Group upped their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.32.

HP declared that its board has initiated a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

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.