Hewlett-Packard Gets New Street-High Analyst Target

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By Chris Lange Updated Published
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Credit Suisse released an analyst report reiterating an Outperform rating for Hewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ) and raising its price target to $50 from $45. The brokerage firm raised the target for a few reasons: a stable and predictable cash distribution, conservative guidance and steep undervaluation.

Looking ahead to 2015 and 2016, Credit Suisse estimates growth of 0.1% and 0.9% respectively for PCs. The PC market appears more predictable than in recent years. Credit Suisse’s IT survey suggests that incumbents will continue to struggle from the impact of the cloud and this is reflected in the enterprise revenue estimate for a decline of 2.4% for the full year 2015.

The management guidance for the full year 2015 earnings per share was in the range of $3.83 to $4.03, which Credit Suisse considers conservative. Also considering the $1.8 billion in restructuring, better IPG margins, share gains in PCs and a higher cash return suggest an upside for free cash flows in the range of $8 billion to $9.3 billion.

In the report Credit Suisse analyst Kulbinder Garcha summarizes the break up analysis as:

We have outlined a preliminary balance sheet and free cash flow post-split and conclude that of the $8 billion of free cash flow in fiscal year 2015, $4.4 billion is from HP Enterprise and $3.6 billion from HP Inc. We see a post-split scenario where HP Inc. could have an interesting capital return story by levering up with scope for $11 billion of cash return over the first three years.

The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $41.24 which implies an upside of 4.2% from current prices. The previous highest price target was $47 which implied an upside of 18.8%. Credit Suisse’s price target of $55 has an upside of 39%.

Shares of Hewlett-Packard were flat at $39.57 in the last hour of trading and a 52-week trading range of $27.27 to $40.95. It has a market cap of roughly $74 billion.

Photo of Chris Lange
About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.

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