Kentucky Retirement Systems Sells 3,361 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Kentucky Retirement Systems lessened its holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 4.8% during the first quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 66,222 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 3,361 shares during the period. Kentucky Retirement Systems’ holdings in HP were worth $2,001,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of the business. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its position in HP by 1.0% during the 4th quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 401,809 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $12,090,000 after acquiring an additional 4,102 shares during the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp boosted its position in HP by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 79,291 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,386,000 after buying an additional 1,091 shares during the period. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in HP by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 106,316 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,213,000 after acquiring an additional 22,909 shares during the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its position in HP by 87.9% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 765,799 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $22,960,000 after acquiring an additional 358,231 shares during the period. Finally, Flputnam Investment Management Co. bought a new position in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at $211,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of analysts recently weighed in on HPQ shares. Bank of America increased their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup upped their target price on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. UBS Group increased their target price on shares of HP from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Morgan Stanley boosted their price target on shares of HP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $34.64.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total value of $6,251,977.07. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,335,450.36. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ traded down $0.38 during trading hours on Monday, hitting $35.96. The stock had a trading volume of 1,735,566 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,959,287. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.22 and a 1-year high of $39.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.19 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.20, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a 50 day simple moving average of $35.67 and a 200-day simple moving average of $31.48.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 29th. The computer maker reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.01. HP had a negative return on equity of 230.39% and a net margin of 5.60%. The firm had revenue of $12.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.61 billion. During the same quarter last year, the firm posted $0.80 earnings per share. The company’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.45 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be issued a dividend of $0.2756 per share. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.07%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 37.16%.

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.