Compass Planning Associates Inc Acquires New Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Compass Planning Associates Inc purchased a new stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the 4th quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the SEC. The institutional investor purchased 1,945 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $63,000.

Several other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Ashton Thomas Securities LLC purchased a new stake in HP in the 3rd quarter worth $25,000. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter worth $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter worth about $31,000. Itau Unibanco Holding S.A. purchased a new position in shares of HP during the third quarter valued at approximately $40,000. Finally, RPg Family Wealth Advisory LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the third quarter valued at approximately $44,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,219,680.32. This represents a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 74,356 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Friday, December 13th. The stock was sold at an average price of $34.43, for a total transaction of $2,560,077.08. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 56,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,933,898.67. The trade was a 56.97 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last quarter, insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock valued at $9,670,068. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities analysts recently issued reports on the company. HSBC cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and dropped their price objective for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a report on Friday, November 29th. Barclays upped their price target on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. TD Cowen lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup dropped their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.68.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ opened at $34.73 on Friday. The firm’s fifty day moving average is $33.10 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.81. The firm has a market cap of $32.57 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.36, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05. HP Inc. has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.90 earnings per share. HP’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.33%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 41.28%.

HP Company 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.