Beacon Financial Group Cuts Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Beacon Financial Group reduced its position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 8.0% during the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor owned 6,708 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 586 shares during the quarter. Beacon Financial Group’s holdings in HP were worth $219,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Wealth Advisors Northwest LLC acquired a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $528,000. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas raised its stake in shares of HP by 14.5% during the 4th quarter. Community Bank & Trust Waco Texas now owns 17,472 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $570,000 after buying an additional 2,218 shares during the period. Sovran Advisors LLC purchased a new position in shares of HP during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $993,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC acquired a new stake in HP in the 4th quarter valued at $31,000. Finally, Essex Financial Services Inc. increased its holdings in HP by 8.0% in the 4th quarter. Essex Financial Services Inc. now owns 12,958 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $423,000 after acquiring an additional 961 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068 over the last quarter. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several research firms have issued reports on HPQ. Hsbc Global Res downgraded shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup decreased their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, HSBC cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price target for the stock from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, HP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.23.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $33.04 on Thursday. The company has a market capitalization of $30.98 billion, a PE ratio of 11.76, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.78 and a beta of 1.05. The firm’s 50-day moving average is $33.34 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.88. HP Inc. has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79.

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

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.50%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.28%.

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.