HP (NYSE:HPQ) Trading Down 16.9% – Should You Sell?

Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) traded down 16.9% during mid-day trading on Thursday . The stock traded as low as $23.27 and last traded at $23.16. 4,101,472 shares traded hands during trading, a decline of 45% from the average session volume of 7,458,373 shares. The stock had previously closed at $27.88.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of research firms have recently issued reports on HPQ. Loop Capital cut their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Morgan Stanley decreased their price target on shares of HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Barclays upped their price target on shares of HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.14.

HP Trading Down 5.0 %

The firm has a market cap of $21.29 billion, a PE ratio of 8.04, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The firm has a fifty day simple moving average of $30.78 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $33.72.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.35 billion. Equities analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 5.13%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 41.37%.

Insider Activity

In other HP news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total value of $613,817.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 169 shares in the company, valued at approximately $4,814.81. This represents a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total transaction of $453,734.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the stock. Synergy Asset Management LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at $26,000. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC purchased a new stake in HP during the 4th quarter valued at about $31,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in HP in the fourth quarter worth about $36,000. OFI Invest Asset Management bought a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. Finally, CoreCap Advisors LLC grew its holdings in shares of HP by 71.9% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,403 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $46,000 after buying an additional 587 shares during the last quarter. 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.