Traders Purchase High Volume of Call Options on HP (NYSE:HPQ)

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the target of unusually large options trading on Tuesday. Traders bought 19,642 call options on the stock. This represents an increase of approximately 55% compared to the average daily volume of 12,641 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have recently commented on HPQ shares. Loop Capital decreased their target price on HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. Barclays increased their price objective on shares of HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on shares of HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “market perform” rating in a research note on Friday, January 3rd. Wells Fargo & Company increased their price target on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have given a hold rating and two have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $36.14.

HP Stock Up 0.4 %

NYSE:HPQ opened at $27.80 on Wednesday. HP has a 12-month low of $27.30 and a 12-month high of $39.80. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.28 and its 200-day simple moving average is $33.91. The firm has a market capitalization of $26.20 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.89, a P/E/G ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. The firm had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. As a group, equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.16%. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 41.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total transaction of $613,817.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $4,814.81. This trade represents a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is accessible through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total value of $453,734.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. State Street Corp lifted its holdings in HP by 8.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after acquiring an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC raised its position in shares of HP by 2.3% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,350,016 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $825,398,000 after purchasing an additional 579,525 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. raised its position in shares of HP by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,776,697 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $482,164,000 after purchasing an additional 592,391 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 15.8% during the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,795 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $419,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755,942 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. grew its position in shares of HP by 7.3% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,511,218 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $310,351,000 after purchasing an additional 643,192 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Company Profile

HP Inc provides products, technologies, software, solutions, and services to individual consumers, small- and medium-sized businesses, and large enterprises, including customers in the government, health, and education sectors worldwide. It operates through Personal Systems and Printing segments. The Personal Systems segment offers commercial personal computers (PCs), consumer PCs, workstations, thin clients, commercial tablets and mobility devices, retail point-of-sale systems, displays and other related accessories, software, support, and services for the commercial and consumer markets.