HP (NYSE:HPQ) Trading Up 7.7% – What’s Next?

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)’s stock price shot up 7.7% on Tuesday . The company traded as high as $21.14 and last traded at $21.0980. 6,428,393 shares changed hands during mid-day trading, a decline of 67% from the average session volume of 19,223,037 shares. The stock had previously closed at $19.59.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research firms have recently weighed in on HPQ. UBS Group cut their price objective on shares of HP from $26.00 to $20.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, February 19th. Zacks Research upgraded shares of HP from a “strong sell” rating to a “hold” rating in a research note on Monday, April 6th. Bank of America reiterated an “underperform” rating and issued a $20.00 price objective (down from $26.00) on shares of HP in a research note on Tuesday, February 3rd. The Goldman Sachs Group cut their price objective on shares of HP from $21.00 to $16.00 and set a “sell” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on shares of HP from $18.00 to $16.00 and set an “underweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, February 25th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, ten have issued a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $21.58.

HP Price Performance

The firm has a market capitalization of $19.23 billion, a PE ratio of 7.96, a P/E/G ratio of 5.52 and a beta of 1.11. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $18.94 and its 200-day simple moving average is $22.12.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, February 24th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $0.77 by $0.04. The business had revenue of $14.44 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.87 billion. HP had a net margin of 4.46% and a negative return on equity of 367.41%. The company’s revenue was up 6.9% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.74 earnings per share. HP has set its Q2 2026 guidance at 0.700-0.760 EPS. Analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 2.84 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 1st. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 11th were issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 5.7%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 45.45%.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Several hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in HP by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 132,094,388 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,943,063,000 after purchasing an additional 2,435,634 shares in the last quarter. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in HP by 5.3% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 52,703,639 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,450,245,000 after purchasing an additional 2,651,623 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC lifted its holdings in HP by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 27,313,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $607,373,000 after purchasing an additional 274,033 shares in the last quarter. Invesco Ltd. lifted its holdings in HP by 31.7% during the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 15,236,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $339,468,000 after purchasing an additional 3,671,511 shares in the last quarter. Finally, AQR Capital Management LLC lifted its stake in shares of HP by 50.2% in the fourth quarter. AQR Capital Management LLC now owns 13,582,142 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $302,610,000 after buying an additional 4,542,339 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HP Company Profile

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.