Welch & Forbes LLC Sells 3,400 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Welch & Forbes LLC reduced its position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 22.8% during the 1st quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The fund owned 11,500 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 3,400 shares during the quarter. Welch & Forbes LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $318,000 as of its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Several other large investors also recently modified their holdings of the stock. Norges Bank bought a new stake in shares of HP in the 4th quarter valued at $229,320,000. Universal Beteiligungs und Servicegesellschaft mbH bought a new position in HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $63,612,000. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of HP by 15.8% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,795 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $419,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755,942 shares during the period. Castlekeep Investment Advisors LLC bought a new position in HP in the fourth quarter worth $55,915,000. Finally, Freestone Grove Partners LP bought a new stake in HP in the 4th quarter worth about $50,957,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research firms recently commented on HPQ. Bank of America lowered their price target on HP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, May 28th. Wall Street Zen raised HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group reduced their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, May 29th. Evercore ISI dropped their price objective on HP from $40.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research note on Monday, April 28th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their target price on HP from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, May 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, twelve have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $29.54.

HP Stock Up 0.8%

HPQ opened at $24.75 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $23.24 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.55, a PEG ratio of 1.99 and a beta of 1.27. The company’s 50-day moving average price is $25.89 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $28.24. HP Inc. has a twelve month low of $21.21 and a twelve month high of $39.80.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The computer maker reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.09). The firm had revenue of $13.22 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.09 billion. HP had a net margin of 4.64% and a negative return on equity of 244.99%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 3.3% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.82 EPS. As a group, sell-side 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, October 1st. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 10th will be given a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.68%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 10th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.79%.

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.