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It's normally a sign of poor perfusion, or blood circulation, to the tissues in the area. "Poor" can reasonably mean, in this case, "less than optimal, but probably not dangerous"... if it's a chronic thing, you may consider having it looked at, though it's likely just going to be "one of those things"... it exists, but it's not "bad" and there's not much to do about it.
Some of it can also be body fat, though if you're talking about hands and feet that's not usually the case... with exception to large people, there is just not a lot of adipose tissue (fat) in your hands and feet, that you might say if you lacked a bit, that would cause cold hands and feet. You could, however, have a low enough amount of overall insulation (body fat), and feel it more in your hands and feet... your body would be more likely to try and conserve heat or compensate for losing heat by constricting the vessels near the surface of the skin, which gives more blood (and therefore warmth) to the internal organs... this can be felt most noticeably in the hands and feet for a variety of reasons, but I would say normally it's because your hands are so innervated (have so many nerves in them) that you feel it more strongly there, plus receptors for things like temperature are very strong and persistent in the hands (meaning you feel the heat or coldness of something more strongly/accurately on your hands and fingers than, say, against your arm or leg), and your feet get the lowest perfusion in your body, since it is farthest from the heart.
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