CENTRAL TRUST Co Sells 7,459 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

CENTRAL TRUST Co lessened its holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 5.7% in the first quarter, according to its most recent filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 123,502 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 7,459 shares during the period. CENTRAL TRUST Co’s holdings in HP were worth $3,732,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the company. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its holdings in shares of HP by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,966,113 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $76,229,000 after purchasing an additional 112,427 shares during the last quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. increased its position in HP by 23.6% in the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 21,204 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $545,000 after purchasing an additional 4,054 shares during the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its stake in HP by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 79,291 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC lifted its position in HP by 8.8% during the third quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 62,575 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,608,000 after purchasing an additional 5,064 shares during the last quarter. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale increased its holdings in shares of HP by 87.9% in the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 765,799 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $22,960,000 after buying an additional 358,231 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have commented on HPQ. Bank of America lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 16th. HSBC upgraded shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the company from $30.00 to $33.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays upgraded HP from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $30.00 in a report on Tuesday. Finally, StockNews.com lowered shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $34.00.

HP Stock Up 1.0 %

Shares of HP stock traded up $0.33 during midday trading on Wednesday, hitting $33.02. The company had a trading volume of 7,714,808 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,631,614. The stock has a market cap of $32.38 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 9.65, a PEG ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.06. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.22 and a 12-month high of $33.90. The company has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.43 and a 200 day simple moving average of $29.29.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.81. HP had a negative return on equity of 181.02% and a net margin of 6.45%. The business had revenue of $13.19 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.56 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. The company’s quarterly revenue was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.42 EPS for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2756 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, June 12th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.16%.

Insiders Place Their Bets

In other news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 41,015 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Tuesday, March 5th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.24, for a total value of $1,199,278.60. Following the sale, the insider now owns 56,169 shares in the company, valued at $1,642,381.56. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. In other HP news, insider Kristen M. Ludgate sold 41,015 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Tuesday, March 5th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.24, for a total value of $1,199,278.60. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 56,169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,642,381.56. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. Also, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total transaction of $2,010,670.00. Following the sale, the director now directly owns 60,216 shares in the company, valued at $1,807,082.16. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 116,723 shares of company stock valued at $3,479,287. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

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.