HP (NYSE:HPQ) Releases Earnings Results, Meets Estimates

HP (NYSE:HPQ) issued its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93, Briefing.com reports. HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The company 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 company earned $0.90 EPS. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% on a year-over-year basis.

HP Trading Down 0.6 %

HPQ stock traded down $0.22 during midday trading on Tuesday, reaching $39.08. The stock had a trading volume of 12,052,757 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,761,361. HP has a 52-week low of $27.42 and a 52-week high of $39.79. The company has a market cap of $37.66 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 13.79, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.62 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $36.47 and its 200 day simple moving average is $35.46.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research analysts recently issued reports on the stock. Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital decreased their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. dropped their target price on HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday, November 20th. Citigroup downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Barclays dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.45.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP declared that its board has approved a stock buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.