Ritholtz Wealth Management Acquires 6,344 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Ritholtz Wealth Management lifted its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 8.0% in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The institutional investor owned 85,294 shares of the computer maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 6,344 shares during the period. Ritholtz Wealth Management’s holdings in HP were worth $2,567,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently made changes to their positions in the company. Certified Advisory Corp purchased a new position in HP during the first quarter valued at $26,000. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its position in shares of HP by 84.6% in the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 866 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $26,000 after acquiring an additional 397 shares in the last quarter. Mascoma Wealth Management LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the third quarter worth about $25,000. VitalStone Financial LLC bought a new stake in HP during the first quarter worth approximately $38,000. Finally, Covestor Ltd grew its stake in shares of HP by 84.5% during the second quarter. Covestor Ltd now owns 1,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $33,000 after buying an additional 502 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of HP stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $269,338.44. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Tuesday, January 2nd. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.75, for a total value of $1,130,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 888,911 shares in the company, valued at $26,445,102.25. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $269,338.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. In the last 90 days, insiders have sold 154,723 shares of company stock valued at $4,609,787. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

HP Price Performance

HP stock traded up $0.10 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $30.22. The company had a trading volume of 5,953,912 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,511,959. The company has a market capitalization of $29.64 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.84, a P/E/G ratio of 2.52 and a beta of 1.04. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.22 and a 12-month high of $33.90. The firm’s fifty day simple moving average is $29.30 and its 200-day simple moving average is $28.55.

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

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th will be given a dividend of $0.2756 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.65%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Tuesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is presently 32.16%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPQ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Morgan Stanley upgraded HP from an “equal weight” rating to an “overweight” rating and upped their target price for the stock from $31.00 to $35.00 in a report on Tuesday, December 12th. StockNews.com lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Friday, March 1st. Evercore ISI upgraded HP from an “in-line” rating to an “outperform” rating and increased their price objective for the company from $33.00 to $40.00 in a report on Monday, December 11th. 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. Finally, Barclays increased their price target on HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has given a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $33.11.

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.