Cerity Partners LLC Trims Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Cerity Partners LLC lowered its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 45.2% during the third quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The fund owned 213,425 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 176,299 shares during the period. Cerity Partners LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $7,657,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission.

Other hedge funds and other institutional investors also recently bought and sold shares of the company. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the 3rd quarter valued at $25,000. Triad Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in HP in the second quarter valued at $33,000. Thurston Springer Miller Herd & Titak Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at about $34,000. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 115.1% in the 3rd quarter. Wolff Wiese Magana LLC now owns 968 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $35,000 after buying an additional 518 shares during the period. Finally, ORG Wealth Partners LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the third quarter worth about $37,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Price Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $34.66 on Thursday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $36.56 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.52. HP Inc. has a 1 year low of $27.42 and a 1 year high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a PE ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.90 earnings per share. As a group, analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

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

HP declared that its board has approved a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback programs are often an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

Several brokerages recently weighed in on HPQ. Loop Capital reduced their price target on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. TD Cowen boosted their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research note on Wednesday. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays raised their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.32.

Insider Transactions at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99.48. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

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.