Morgan Stanley Lowers HP (NYSE:HPQ) to Equal Weight

Morgan Stanley cut shares of HP (NYSE:HPQ) from an overweight rating to an equal weight rating in a research note issued to investors on Monday, Marketbeat.com reports. They currently have $37.00 price target on the computer maker’s stock.

Other analysts have also issued reports about the stock. JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an overweight rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Bank of America upped their price target on shares of HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of HP from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a neutral rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup upped their price objective on shares of HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a buy rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of HP from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an underweight rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HP has an average rating of Hold and an average target price of $34.64.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ opened at $35.26 on Monday. HP has a 52-week low of $25.22 and a 52-week high of $39.52. The firm has a fifty day moving average of $35.59 and a 200 day moving average of $32.11. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.50 billion, a PE ratio of 11.91, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The computer maker reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.01. HP had a net margin of 5.60% and a negative return on equity of 230.39%. The company had revenue of $12.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.61 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts forecast that HP 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. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be issued a $0.2756 dividend. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.13%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 37.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the company’s 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 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 available through the SEC website. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Norges Bank purchased a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter worth approximately $187,264,000. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in HP by 2.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,649,919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,441 shares during the period. Schroder Investment Management Group raised its position in HP by 1,472.4% in the fourth quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,264,081 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $68,126,000 after acquiring an additional 2,120,096 shares during the period. California Public Employees Retirement System raised its position in shares of HP by 69.6% during the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 5,030,982 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $151,382,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,869 shares during the period. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at $62,672,000. Hedge funds and other institutional investors 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.