Principal Financial Group Inc. Sells 30,839 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Principal Financial Group Inc. lessened its stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 2.7% in the 4th quarter, HoldingsChannel.com reports. The firm owned 1,123,085 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 30,839 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $36,646,000 as of its most recent filing with the SEC.

Several other hedge funds have also bought and sold shares of the stock. Americana Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the 4th quarter valued at approximately $7,545,000. Hourglass Capital LLC raised its stake in HP by 3.5% during the 4th quarter. Hourglass Capital LLC now owns 138,005 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $4,503,000 after acquiring an additional 4,700 shares during the period. Strategic Financial Concepts LLC purchased a new position in HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $639,000. Allworth Financial LP boosted its position in shares of HP by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Allworth Financial LP now owns 43,276 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,434,000 after purchasing an additional 2,962 shares during the period. Finally, Principal Securities Inc. increased its stake in shares of HP by 20.3% in the fourth quarter. Principal Securities Inc. now owns 18,613 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $607,000 after purchasing an additional 3,146 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total value of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 11,000 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, December 30th. The stock was sold at an average price of $32.50, for a total transaction of $357,500.00. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 6,277 shares in the company, valued at $204,002.50. This represents a 63.67 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders sold a total of 273,035 shares of company stock worth $9,670,068 in the last quarter. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on HPQ shares. HSBC cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “hold” rating and lowered their target price for the company from $39.00 to $38.00 in a research note on Friday, November 29th. Citigroup dropped their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 27th. Barclays increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their price target on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a report on Friday, January 3rd. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. cut their price objective on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.68.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $34.63 on Friday. The business’s 50 day moving average price is $33.10 and its 200-day moving average price is $34.83. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $32.48 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.32, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis. As a group, equities analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a dividend of $0.2894 per share. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 3.34%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is currently 41.28%.

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.