Sentry Investment Management LLC Makes New Investment in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Sentry Investment Management LLC purchased a new position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the 4th quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The institutional investor purchased 3,756 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $123,000.

Several other hedge funds and other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the business. State Street Corp boosted its stake in HP by 8.2% in the 3rd quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC boosted its stake in HP by 11.1% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 24,770,491 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $885,877,000 after purchasing an additional 2,477,977 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. boosted its stake in HP by 4.2% in the 4th quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,776,697 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $482,164,000 after purchasing an additional 592,391 shares during the period. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC boosted its stake in HP by 7.7% in the 3rd quarter. UBS AM a distinct business unit of UBS ASSET MANAGEMENT AMERICAS LLC now owns 8,581,422 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $307,816,000 after purchasing an additional 612,675 shares during the period. Finally, Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. boosted its stake in HP by 11.2% in the 3rd quarter. Charles Schwab Investment Management Inc. now owns 6,743,122 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $241,876,000 after purchasing an additional 678,985 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ opened at $33.76 on Thursday. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $33.14 and its 200 day moving average is $34.87. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $27.42 and a fifty-two week high of $39.79. The firm has a market capitalization of $31.66 billion, a PE ratio of 12.01, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.05.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly 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 negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm posted $0.90 EPS. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. Equities analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.43%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 40.93%.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPQ has been the subject of a number of research reports. TD Cowen increased their target price on HP from $32.00 to $39.00 and gave the company a “hold” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Citigroup lowered their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. Hsbc Global Res downgraded HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, HSBC downgraded 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 report on Friday, November 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.68.

Insider Transactions at HP

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

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.