Advisors Asset Management Inc. Sells 16,857 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. cut its position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 2.6% during the fourth quarter, according to the company in its most recent disclosure with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 624,552 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 16,857 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $20,379,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also modified their holdings of the company. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans increased its position in shares of HP by 4.1% during the fourth quarter. Thrivent Financial for Lutherans now owns 66,878 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,259,000 after purchasing an additional 2,650 shares during the period. Kennondale Capital Management LLC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $956,000. PDS Planning Inc increased its position in shares of HP by 7.4% during the fourth quarter. PDS Planning Inc now owns 6,416 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $209,000 after purchasing an additional 444 shares during the period. Mystic Asset Management Inc. bought a new stake in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $287,000. Finally, Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. grew its position in HP by 19.6% in the fourth quarter. Tocqueville Asset Management L.P. now owns 13,629 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $445,000 after acquiring an additional 2,233 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other HP news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total value of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. Insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of analysts have weighed in on HPQ shares. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Citigroup lowered their price target on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. StockNews.com upgraded HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Tuesday. HSBC cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their price target for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their price target on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.14.

HP Stock Up 1.7 %

Shares of HPQ opened at $28.91 on Tuesday. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $27.43 and a 12-month high of $39.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $27.25 billion, a PE ratio of 10.29, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $32.26 and its 200-day simple moving average is $34.37.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.74. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.35 billion. Analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be paid a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.00%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is 41.37%.

HP 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.