Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. Lowers Holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Johnson Investment Counsel Inc. trimmed its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 5.2% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The firm owned 23,064 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 1,263 shares during the quarter. Johnson Investment Counsel Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $708,000 at the end of the most recent reporting period.

Several other hedge funds have also made changes to their positions in HPQ. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 89.9% in the 1st quarter. Cantor Fitzgerald Investment Advisor L.P now owns 873,243 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $31,698,000 after buying an additional 413,491 shares during the period. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 46.6% in the 1st quarter. Canada Pension Plan Investment Board now owns 305,877 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $11,103,000 after buying an additional 97,178 shares during the period. Prudential PLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP in the 1st quarter worth $892,000. Cetera Investment Advisers lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 6.8% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 17,651 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $641,000 after buying an additional 1,121 shares during the period. Finally, Sequoia Financial Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in shares of HP during the 1st quarter worth $309,000. 76.04% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities research analysts recently weighed in on HPQ shares. Evercore ISI restated an “in-line” rating and set a $33.00 price objective on shares of HP in a research note on Monday. Deutsche Bank Aktiengesellschaft decreased their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their price objective on HP from $40.00 to $39.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, August 30th. StockNews.com upgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “strong-buy” rating in a research note on Friday. Finally, Bank of America upgraded HP from an “underperform” rating to a “buy” rating and upped their price objective for the stock from $25.00 to $33.00 in a research note on Tuesday, October 3rd. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating, four have given a buy rating and one has assigned a strong buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus target price of $30.82.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.75, for a total value of $978,500.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 728,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,752,901. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 38,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Monday, October 2nd. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.75, for a total transaction of $978,500.00. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 728,268 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $18,752,901. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this hyperlink. Also, major shareholder Berkshire Hathaway Inc sold 3,215,554 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, September 29th. The stock was sold at an average price of $25.80, for a total value of $82,961,293.20. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 102,519,035 shares in the company, valued at $2,644,991,103. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Over the last three months, insiders have sold 14,457,179 shares of company stock valued at $388,231,371. Company insiders own 0.32% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

HP stock opened at $27.99 on Tuesday. The stock has a 50-day moving average of $26.84 and a two-hundred day moving average of $29.56. HP Inc. has a one year low of $25.22 and a one year high of $33.90. The stock has a market cap of $27.66 billion, a PE ratio of 12.06, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.04.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings data on Tuesday, August 29th. The computer maker reported $0.86 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86. The business had revenue of $13.20 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.38 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 113.55% and a net margin of 4.23%. The company’s revenue was down 9.9% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period in the prior year, the company earned $1.04 earnings per share. As a group, sell-side analysts predict that HP Inc. will post 3.3 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, January 3rd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 13th will be issued a $0.2756 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Tuesday, December 12th. This is a positive change from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.26. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.94%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 45.26%.

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.