TD Cowen Forecasts Strong Price Appreciation for HP (NYSE:HPQ) Stock

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price target increased by equities research analysts at TD Cowen from $32.00 to $39.00 in a research note issued on Wednesday, Marketbeat.com reports. The firm currently has a “hold” rating on the computer maker’s stock. TD Cowen’s price target would indicate a potential upside of 12.52% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other analysts also recently commented on HPQ. Citigroup downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. UBS Group lifted their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Barclays reduced their price target on HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have given a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HP currently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.32.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HP stock opened at $34.66 on Wednesday. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.16, a PEG ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. The business has a 50 day simple moving average of $36.56 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $35.52. HP has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, research analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Lazard Asset Management LLC grew its stake in shares of HP by 3,567.3% in the first quarter. Lazard Asset Management LLC now owns 34,143 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,030,000 after acquiring an additional 33,212 shares in the last quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD grew its stake in HP by 1.3% during the 1st quarter. Price T Rowe Associates Inc. MD now owns 1,191,666 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $36,013,000 after purchasing an additional 15,675 shares in the last quarter. Tidal Investments LLC increased its holdings in HP by 15.9% during the 1st quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 114,994 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,474,000 after purchasing an additional 15,815 shares during the period. iA Global Asset Management Inc. raised its position in HP by 373.2% in the 1st quarter. iA Global Asset Management Inc. now owns 48,753 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,473,000 after purchasing an additional 38,450 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wahed Invest LLC boosted its stake in shares of HP by 14.5% in the 1st quarter. Wahed Invest LLC now owns 16,890 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $510,000 after buying an additional 2,140 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

About HP

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.