Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC Makes New Investment in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Johnson Bixby & Associates LLC bought a new position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) during the fourth quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The institutional investor bought 7,035 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $212,000.

A number of other institutional investors also recently modified their holdings of HPQ. Vanguard Group Inc. grew its stake in shares of HP by 12.3% during the 3rd quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,509,674 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,019,999,000 after acquiring an additional 12,883,347 shares during the period. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC grew its stake in shares of HP by 114,461.5% during the 4th quarter. Moneta Group Investment Advisors LLC now owns 11,538,630 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $310,043,000 after acquiring an additional 11,528,558 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of HP by 4,180.9% during the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,516,510 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $286,352,000 after acquiring an additional 9,294,209 shares during the period. Norges Bank bought a new position in shares of HP during the 4th quarter worth $151,025,000. Finally, Qube Research & Technologies Ltd grew its stake in shares of HP by 145.9% during the 3rd quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 6,090,872 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $156,535,000 after acquiring an additional 3,613,742 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.75, for a total value of $1,130,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 888,911 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $26,445,102.25. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through the SEC website. In related news, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on 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 transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.75, for a total value of $1,130,500.00. Following the completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 888,911 shares in the company, valued at $26,445,102.25. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last three months, insiders have sold 154,723 shares of company stock valued at $4,609,787. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Trading Up 0.4 %

Shares of HPQ traded up $0.13 during trading hours on Wednesday, reaching $30.12. 6,440,070 shares of the company’s stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 8,554,606. The stock has a market cap of $29.54 billion, a PE ratio of 8.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.04. The firm’s 50 day simple moving average is $29.27 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.54. HP Inc. has a 12 month low of $25.22 and a 12 month high of $33.90.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81. The company had revenue of $13.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.56 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 181.02% and a net margin of 6.45%. HP’s revenue for the quarter was down 4.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.75 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.41 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 13th will be issued a dividend of $0.2756 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.66%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is 32.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research analysts have recently weighed in on the company. StockNews.com downgraded HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Barclays raised their target price on HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 29th. HSBC upgraded HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $30.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Wednesday, February 14th. Evercore ISI upgraded HP from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $33.00 to $40.00 in a research note on Monday, December 11th. Finally, Morgan Stanley upgraded HP from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and raised their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $35.00 in a research note on Tuesday, December 12th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, HP currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average price target of $33.11.

HP 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.