Capital Investment Counsel Inc Sells 500 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Capital Investment Counsel Inc lowered its holdings in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 2.9% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The fund owned 16,591 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 500 shares during the period. Capital Investment Counsel Inc’s holdings in HP were worth $541,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other large investors have also recently modified their holdings of the business. Principal Financial Group Inc. raised its stake in HP by 16.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $41,391,000 after buying an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC raised its stake in HP by 169.3% during the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,132,000 after buying an additional 21,805 shares during the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC raised its stake in HP by 47.5% during the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $5,259,000 after buying an additional 47,230 shares during the last quarter. MML Investors Services LLC raised its stake in HP by 35.0% during the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,243,000 after buying an additional 16,207 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management raised its stake in HP by 4.3% during the fourth quarter. Empirical Financial Services LLC d.b.a. Empirical Wealth Management now owns 446,848 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $14,581,000 after buying an additional 18,557 shares during the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total transaction of $4,997,076.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 89,272 shares in the company, valued at approximately $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at approximately $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 sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 over the last three months. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of brokerages recently weighed in on HPQ. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup reduced their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, HSBC cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and reduced their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.68.

HP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $34.73 on Friday. The stock has a market capitalization of $32.57 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.36, a P/E/G ratio of 2.92 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a 50-day moving average price of $33.10 and a 200-day moving average price of $34.81. HP Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The business’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, equities research analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.33%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

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.