HP (NYSE:HPQ) Upgraded to Buy at Wall Street Zen

Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from a hold rating to a buy rating in a research note released on Saturday.

A number of other research analysts have also issued reports on HPQ. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of HP from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their target price on HP from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings upgraded HP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Finally, TD Cowen lifted their price target on HP from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Two investment analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $23.50.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $29.76 on Friday. HP has a fifty-two week low of $17.56 and a fifty-two week high of $32.19. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.22 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.98, a PEG ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.17. The stock’s 50-day simple moving average is $25.78 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.40.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The computer maker reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.72 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $14.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 4.45% and a negative return on equity of 581.36%. HP’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.71 EPS. HP has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.100 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.610-0.710 EPS. As a group, equities analysts forecast that HP will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be paid a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.0%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 44.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider David P. Mcquarrie sold 21,048 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.98, for a total value of $631,019.04. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 39,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,186,608.40. This represents a 34.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last ninety days, insiders have sold 52,620 shares of company stock worth $1,478,622. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the business. BlackRock Inc. purchased a new stake in HP in the second quarter valued at $2,357,757,000. Primecap Management Co. CA purchased a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at about $545,984,000. Legal & General Group Plc purchased a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at about $180,689,000. DNB Asset Management AS lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 242.2% in the 4th quarter. DNB Asset Management AS now owns 10,594,630 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $236,048,000 after buying an additional 7,498,202 shares during the period. Finally, Man Group plc purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the second quarter worth about $149,223,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

About HP

HP Inc is an American multinational information technology company that designs, manufactures and sells personal computing devices, printers and related supplies and services. Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial notebooks and desktops, workstations, displays and accessories, as well as an extensive line of printing hardware that includes home, office and production printers. HP also provides consumables such as ink and toner, managed print services, device deployment and lifecycle support, and software for device and print management.

Founded from the original Hewlett‑Packard Company, HP Inc became a separately traded public company in 2015 following a corporate split that created Hewlett Packard Enterprise to focus on enterprise hardware and services.