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

HP (NYSE:HPQ) had its price target dropped by analysts at Morgan Stanley from $19.00 to $17.00 in a note issued to investors on Monday,Benzinga reports. The firm currently has an “underweight” rating on the computer maker’s stock. Morgan Stanley’s price objective suggests a potential downside of 40.78% from the stock’s current price.

A number of other research firms also recently weighed in on HPQ. Barclays raised 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. Weiss Ratings raised HP from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “hold (c)” rating in a report on Monday, July 6th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their target price on shares of HP from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Citigroup boosted their target price on shares of HP from $20.00 to $25.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, Wall Street Zen raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Saturday. 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 company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat.com, HP has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus price target of $24.17.

HP Trading Down 3.4%

Shares of HP stock traded down $1.00 during trading hours on Monday, reaching $28.70. 4,281,613 shares of the company’s stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 18,279,004. The stock has a market cap of $26.25 billion, a P/E ratio of 10.58, a P/E/G ratio of 5.01 and a beta of 1.17. The company has a 50 day moving average of $25.78 and a two-hundred day moving average of $22.42. HP has a fifty-two week low of $17.56 and a fifty-two week high of $32.19.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its earnings results on Wednesday, May 27th. The computer maker reported $0.86 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.14. HP had a negative return on equity of 581.36% and a net margin of 4.45%.The business had revenue of $14.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.71 earnings per share. HP’s quarterly revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. HP has set its FY 2026 guidance at 2.900-3.100 EPS and its Q3 2026 guidance at 0.610-0.710 EPS. As a group, analysts expect that HP will post 2.98 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, insider David P. Mcquarrie sold 21,048 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.98, for a total value of $631,019.04. Following the transaction, the insider directly owned 39,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,186,608.40. This represents a 34.72% decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal 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. In the last quarter, insiders have sold 52,620 shares of company stock valued at $1,478,622. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the company. Baird Financial Group Inc. grew 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 valued at $2,793,000 after buying an additional 13,265 shares in the last quarter. Gamco Investors INC. ET AL lifted its holdings 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 worth $519,000 after buying an additional 551 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. boosted its position 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 valued at $3,555,000 after acquiring an additional 8,779 shares during the period. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina boosted its position 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 valued at $17,894,000 after acquiring an additional 302,578 shares during the period. Finally, HUB Investment Partners LLC acquired a new position in shares of HP in the second quarter valued at about $233,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.