HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Shares Bought by Milestone Asset Management LLC

Milestone Asset Management LLC boosted its stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 39.8% during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent Form 13F filing with the SEC. The fund owned 56,786 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 16,173 shares during the period. Milestone Asset Management LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $1,853,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Public Sector Pension Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 78.9% in the 2nd quarter. Public Sector Pension Investment Board now owns 17,978 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $630,000 after acquiring an additional 7,931 shares during the last quarter. Marshall Wace LLP purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the 2nd quarter valued at $269,000. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company lifted its stake in HP by 2.7% during the 2nd quarter. The Manufacturers Life Insurance Company now owns 724,295 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $25,365,000 after acquiring an additional 19,342 shares in the last quarter. Creative Planning boosted its holdings in HP by 6.3% during the 2nd quarter. Creative Planning now owns 213,889 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $7,490,000 after acquiring an additional 12,745 shares during the period. Finally, Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. lifted its position in shares of HP by 9.8% during the second quarter. Northwestern Mutual Wealth Management Co. now owns 41,516 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,454,000 after purchasing an additional 3,722 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of equities research analysts have issued reports on the stock. Citigroup reduced their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein increased their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Barclays increased their target price 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 increased their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Finally, Hsbc Global Res lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a report on Friday, November 29th. One 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.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.23.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of HP 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 approximately $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 137,094 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 9th. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.45, for a total transaction of $4,997,076.30. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 89,272 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $3,253,964.40. The trade was a 60.56 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 over the last 90 days. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

HPQ stock opened at $32.64 on Thursday. HP Inc. has a one year low of $27.42 and a one year high of $39.79. The stock has a market capitalization of $30.61 billion, a PE ratio of 11.61, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.83 and a beta of 1.05. The company has a fifty day moving average of $34.22 and a 200-day moving average of $35.22.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released 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 net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.90 EPS. The business’s revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. Equities analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th were paid a $0.2894 dividend. This is a boost from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date was Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.55%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.28%.

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.