Bank of Montreal Can Reduces Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Bank of Montreal Can trimmed its stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 30.4% in the 3rd quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 898,308 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 392,257 shares during the period. Bank of Montreal Can owned 0.09% of HP worth $31,809,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Primecap Management Co. CA lifted its position in shares of HP by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $786,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319,731 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its position in shares of 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 purchasing an additional 1,455,138 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its position in shares of HP by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $375,079,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089,848 shares during the period. Bank of New York Mellon Corp lifted its position in shares of HP by 3.5% in the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,402,432 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $294,253,000 after purchasing an additional 287,861 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. lifted its position in HP by 11.2% during the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,743,122 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $241,876,000 after acquiring an additional 678,985 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of brokerages recently issued reports on HPQ. Barclays lifted their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday. TD Cowen lifted their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday. UBS Group lifted their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.32.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ opened at $34.66 on Friday. The firm has a market cap of $33.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $36.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.52.

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

HP announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s management believes its shares are undervalued.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. HP’s payout ratio is currently 38.60%.

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.