Baird Financial Group Inc. Increases Stock Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Baird Financial Group Inc. grew its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 18.3% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 24,668 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 3,824 shares during the period. Baird Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $805,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC raised its holdings in shares of HP by 0.8% in the fourth quarter. Beverly Hills Private Wealth LLC now owns 45,729 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,492,000 after purchasing an additional 384 shares during the last quarter. Alethea Capital Management LLC bought a new position in HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $401,000. Ameriprise Financial Inc. grew its position in HP by 0.7% during the fourth quarter. Ameriprise Financial Inc. now owns 1,185,072 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $38,727,000 after buying an additional 8,772 shares during the period. Alteri Wealth LLC bought a new position in HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $363,000. Finally, Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC grew its position in HP by 6.9% during the fourth quarter. Atalanta Sosnoff Capital LLC now owns 11,521 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $376,000 after buying an additional 744 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several equities analysts recently weighed in on the stock. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. StockNews.com upgraded shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Monday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their target price on shares of HP from $40.00 to $29.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, April 17th. Evercore ISI cut their target price on shares of HP from $40.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, April 28th. Finally, Citigroup lowered their price target on shares of HP from $36.50 to $25.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Monday, April 14th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and three have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $33.83.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other HP news, 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total transaction of $613,817.05. Following the transaction, the insider now directly owns 169 shares in the company, valued at $4,814.81. This trade represents a 99.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $28.60 on Thursday. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $26.15 and its 200 day simple moving average is $31.43. The company has a market capitalization of $26.96 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.18, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.32. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $21.21 and a 1-year high of $39.80.

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

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, June 11th will be paid a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 4.05%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.37%.

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.