Freedom Investment Management Inc. Decreases Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Freedom Investment Management Inc. reduced its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 7.3% in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 36,659 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 2,907 shares during the quarter. Freedom Investment Management Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $1,196,000 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. TIAA Trust National Association lifted its stake in shares of HP by 1.8% in the fourth quarter. TIAA Trust National Association now owns 16,796 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $548,000 after buying an additional 302 shares in the last quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC increased its holdings in shares of HP by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. HBK Sorce Advisory LLC now owns 11,467 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $374,000 after purchasing an additional 306 shares during the last quarter. Auxano Advisors LLC lifted its position in HP by 3.7% during the fourth quarter. Auxano Advisors LLC now owns 8,650 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $282,000 after buying an additional 310 shares in the last quarter. Wedmont Private Capital boosted its stake in HP by 2.6% during the fourth quarter. Wedmont Private Capital now owns 12,648 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $420,000 after buying an additional 316 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc grew its holdings in shares of HP by 2.7% in the fourth quarter. Pinnacle Financial Partners Inc now owns 12,265 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $400,000 after purchasing an additional 319 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HPQ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. Citigroup cut their target price on HP from $36.50 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 14th. Barclays raised their price target on shares of HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on shares of HP from $40.00 to $29.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday. StockNews.com cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Tuesday, April 8th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and one has assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $34.00.

HP Trading Up 1.3 %

Shares of HPQ opened at $23.77 on Friday. The company’s 50 day simple moving average is $28.56 and its 200-day simple moving average is $32.74. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.21 and a 12-month high of $39.80. The firm has a market cap of $22.41 billion, a PE ratio of 8.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. The business had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. As a group, equities research analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.87%. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.37%.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total transaction of $453,734.00. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Also, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 directly owns 169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,814.81. This represents a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

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.