Morgan Stanley Cuts HP (NYSE:HPQ) Price Target to $17.00

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its target price cut by Morgan Stanley from $19.00 to $17.00 in a research note published on Monday,Benzinga reports. They currently have an underweight rating on the computer maker’s stock.

A number of other analysts have also recently commented on HPQ. Bank of America upped their price objective on HP from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. Barclays boosted their price target on HP from $16.00 to $19.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on shares of HP from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on shares of HP from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen upgraded shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday, August 22nd. Two research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have issued a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and an average target price of $24.17.

HP Trading Up 3.7%

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $30.62 on Monday. HP has a 12-month low of $17.56 and a 12-month high of $32.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $28.00 billion, a P/E ratio of 11.30, a P/E/G ratio of 4.90 and a beta of 1.17. The firm’s 50 day moving average is $26.11 and its 200 day moving average is $22.63.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 26th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.66 by $0.17. The business had revenue of $15.68 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $14.44 billion. HP had a net margin of 4.45% and a negative return on equity of 581.36%. The company’s quarterly revenue was up 12.5% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.75 EPS. HP has set its FY 2026 guidance at 3.190-3.290 EPS and its Q4 2026 guidance at 0.690-0.790 EPS. As a group, equities analysts predict that HP will post 3.03 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be issued a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.9%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 9th. HP’s payout ratio is currently 44.28%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider David P. Mcquarrie sold 21,048 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.98, for a total value of $631,019.04. Following the transaction, the insider owned 39,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,186,608.40. This trade represents a 34.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders sold a total of 52,620 shares of company stock valued at $1,478,622 in the last three months. Corporate insiders own 0.18% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. lifted its holdings in HP by 13.1% in the 2nd quarter. Baird Financial Group Inc. now owns 114,169 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,793,000 after purchasing an additional 13,265 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL raised its position in shares of HP by 2.7% during the second quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL now owns 21,230 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $519,000 after buying an additional 551 shares during the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 6.4% in the second quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 145,337 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,555,000 after buying an additional 8,779 shares in the last quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 70.5% in the second quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 731,574 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $17,894,000 after buying an additional 302,578 shares in the last quarter. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC bought a new position in shares of HP during the second quarter worth $233,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HP News Summary

Here are the key news stories impacting HP this week:

• Positive Sentiment: HP reported fiscal Q3 revenue of $15.7 billion, up 12.5% year over year and above analyst expectations. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.83, exceeding consensus estimates, while operating cash flow reached $1.7 billion and free cash flow totaled $1.6 billion. HP Inc. Reports Fiscal 2026 Third Quarter Results
• Positive Sentiment: Management raised its fiscal 2026 EPS outlook to $3.19-$3.29, above the roughly $3.02 consensus, and forecast fourth-quarter EPS of $0.69-$0.79, also ahead of expectations. Price increases on premium and AI-enabled PCs, along with expected tariff refunds, are expected to offset higher memory costs. HP forecasts strong fourth-quarter profit on price hikes, US tariff refunds
• Neutral Sentiment: Personal Systems revenue rose 18% to $11.8 billion, but Printing revenue fell 2% to $3.9 billion. HP also signed a multiyear Wi-Fi patent cross-licensing agreement with Huawei, which could support technology access but may attract additional scrutiny because Huawei is on the U.S. Entity List. HP partners with U.S.-blacklisted Huawei for licensing the Chinese company’s WiFi tech
• Negative Sentiment: GAAP net income fell to $661 million from $763 million, and GAAP EPS declined to $0.71 from $0.80. Results also included a $0.11-per-share benefit from tariff refunds, while non-GAAP operating margin contracted to 6.5% from 7.1%. Investors appeared to view the earnings beat and raised guidance as insufficient relative to expectations, triggering a sharp post-earnings selloff. HP shares tumble despite earnings beat, raised guidance

About HP

HP Inc is an American multinational information technology company that designs, manufactures and sells personal computing devices, printers and related supplies and services. Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial notebooks and desktops, workstations, displays and accessories, as well as an extensive line of printing hardware that includes home, office and production printers. HP also provides consumables such as ink and toner, managed print services, device deployment and lifecycle support, and software for device and print management.

Founded from the original Hewlett‑Packard Company, HP Inc became a separately traded public company in 2015 following a corporate split that created Hewlett Packard Enterprise to focus on enterprise hardware and services.