HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock Price Down 16.9% – What’s Next?

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) traded down 16.9% during trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $23.27 and last traded at $23.16. 4,101,472 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 7,458,373 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.88.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the stock. StockNews.com raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays boosted their price objective on shares of HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein upped their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, TD Cowen reduced their price target on HP from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HP has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.14.

HP Trading Down 13.2 %

The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $31.17 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.86. The firm has a market cap of $22.80 billion, a PE ratio of 8.61, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.35 billion. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.79%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is 41.37%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total transaction of $613,817.05. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 169 shares in the company, valued at $4,814.81. The trade was a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total transaction of $453,734.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of HPQ. Amundi increased its stake in HP by 15.9% in the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,561,399 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $217,319,000 after purchasing an additional 899,349 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. grew its holdings in shares of HP by 16.1% in the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the last quarter. Oak Thistle LLC increased its stake in HP by 169.3% in the 4th 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 period. Tidal Investments LLC lifted its holdings in HP by 47.5% during the 3rd quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $5,259,000 after buying an additional 47,230 shares in the last quarter. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC boosted its position in HP by 35.0% in the 3rd quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after buying an additional 16,207 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.