Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. Buys New Shares in HP Inc. $HPQ

Meiji Yasuda Asset Management Co Ltd. bought a new position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) during the second quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The institutional investor bought 19,664 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $431,000.

Other hedge funds have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Garner Asset Management Corp bought a new position in shares of HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $25,000. SHP Wealth Management bought a new stake in shares of HP in the 4th quarter valued at about $26,000. Union Savings Bank purchased a new stake in HP during the 4th quarter valued at about $28,000. DV Equities LLC purchased a new stake in HP during the 4th quarter valued at about $29,000. Finally, Fideuram Intesa Sanpaolo Private Banking S.P.A. bought a new position in HP during the 4th quarter worth approximately $32,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, insider David P. Mcquarrie sold 21,048 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.98, for a total value of $631,019.04. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 39,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,186,608.40. This represents a 34.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 52,620 shares of company stock worth $1,478,622. Insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPQ has been the topic of several analyst reports. Wall Street Zen raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Saturday. UBS Group boosted their price objective on shares of HP from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Weiss Ratings raised shares of HP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a research note on Monday, July 6th. Bank of America raised their target price on HP from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the stock an “underperform” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Evercore set a $32.00 price target on HP in a report on Monday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and five have given a Sell rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $24.17.

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $29.56 on Wednesday. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $17.56 and a fifty-two week high of $32.19. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $25.96 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $22.55. The stock has a market cap of $27.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.91, a PEG ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.17.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The computer maker reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.14. HP had a negative return on equity of 581.36% and a net margin of 4.45%.The company had revenue of $14.41 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.71 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 9.0% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. HP’s payout ratio is 44.28%.

HP Profile

HP Inc is an American multinational information technology company that designs, manufactures and sells personal computing devices, printers and related supplies and services. Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial notebooks and desktops, workstations, displays and accessories, as well as an extensive line of printing hardware that includes home, office and production printers. HP also provides consumables such as ink and toner, managed print services, device deployment and lifecycle support, and software for device and print management.

Founded from the original Hewlett‑Packard Company, HP Inc became a separately traded public company in 2015 following a corporate split that created Hewlett Packard Enterprise to focus on enterprise hardware and services.