Westpac Banking Corp Raises Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Westpac Banking Corp increased its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 24.6% during the fourth quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 133,275 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 26,316 shares during the period. Westpac Banking Corp’s holdings in HP were worth $4,349,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Synergy Asset Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter worth $31,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new stake in HP during the fourth quarter valued at $37,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. bought a new position in HP during the third quarter valued at $40,000. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 4th quarter worth $50,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total value of $613,817.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,814.81. The trade was a 99.22 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were 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 owned by insiders.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several brokerages have recently issued reports on HPQ. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. TD Cowen decreased their price objective on HP from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. Loop Capital dropped their target price on HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their price target on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, StockNews.com raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.14.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $27.91 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $26.31 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s 50-day simple moving average is $31.17 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $33.86. HP Inc. has a one year low of $26.10 and a one year high of $39.80.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.74. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. On average, research analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.15%. HP’s payout ratio is currently 41.37%.

HP 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.