UPDATE: Citigroup Initiates Hewlett-Packard at Sell on Lack of Strategic Direction

Citigroup initiated coverage on Hewlett-Packard

with a Sell rating and a $13.50 price target. Citigroup noted, "We believe consensus EPS estimates are too aggressive for both 2013 and 2014. We believe the company is too optimistic in its PC & printing forecast of flat to up 1% through 2015 as we are concerned Lenovo will surpass HP as the #1 PC market share company and pressure HPs margins. We also fear HP will continue to lose more services opportunities given its heavy restructuring and management turnover. We see Lenovo aggressively moving into HP's market. We note the stock is one of the weakest IT hardware performing stocks in 2012 with investor sentiment quite negative with short interest at all time levels so the sell rating may take a while for the stock keep going lower." Hewlett-Packard closed at $14.73 on Monday.