HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Plans Quarterly Dividend of $0.29

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) declared a quarterly dividend on Wednesday, November 27th,Wall Street Journal reports. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of 0.2894 per share by the computer maker on Thursday, January 2nd. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28.

HP has increased its dividend payment by an average of 13.7% annually over the last three years and has increased its dividend every year for the last 14 years. HP has a dividend payout ratio of 30.5% indicating that its dividend is sufficiently covered by earnings. Equities analysts expect HP to earn $3.59 per share next year, which means the company should continue to be able to cover its $1.10 annual dividend with an expected future payout ratio of 30.6%.

HP Trading Down 11.4 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ traded down $4.45 during trading hours on Wednesday, hitting $34.65. 27,413,048 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,846,401. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $36.56 and its 200 day moving average price is $35.53. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.39 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.44, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the company posted $0.90 EPS. Equities analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was 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 approximately $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have weighed in on HPQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup decreased their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley decreased their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays upped their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Finally, TD Cowen upped their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.32.

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.