Merit Financial Group LLC Acquires New Stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Merit Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the first quarter, according to the company in its most recent filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 22,158 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $614,000.

A number of other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Stonebridge Financial Group LLC bought a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $31,000. Marshall & Sterling Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $36,000. OFI Invest Asset Management purchased a new position in shares of HP during the fourth quarter worth approximately $37,000. CoreCap Advisors LLC raised its stake in shares of HP by 71.9% during the fourth quarter. CoreCap Advisors LLC now owns 1,403 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $46,000 after acquiring an additional 587 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Wingate Wealth Advisors Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HP during the fourth quarter worth approximately $50,000. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total value of $613,817.05. Following the sale, the insider now owns 169 shares in the company, valued at $4,814.81. This trade represents a 99.22% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the stock in a transaction on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total value of $453,734.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

HP Trading Down 0.3%

HP stock opened at $25.10 on Tuesday. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $21.21 and a 12-month high of $39.80. The firm has a market capitalization of $23.58 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.93, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.30. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $25.58 and a 200 day moving average of $30.10.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 28th. The computer maker reported $0.71 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.80 by ($0.09). The business had revenue of $13.22 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.09 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company’s revenue for the quarter was up 3.3% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same quarter in the previous year, the company earned $0.82 earnings per share. On average, analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, July 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, June 11th will be given a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 11th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.61%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.40%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HPQ has been the topic of several analyst reports. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of HP from $30.00 to $27.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Monday, May 12th. UBS Group dropped their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $26.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, May 29th. Bank of America lowered their target price on shares of HP from $35.00 to $33.00 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a research note on Wednesday, May 28th. Finally, Evercore ISI lowered their target price on shares of HP from $40.00 to $32.00 and set an “outperform” rating on the stock in a research note on Monday, April 28th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, eleven have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $29.54.

About HP

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.