Bahl & Gaynor Inc. Purchases 938,680 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Bahl & Gaynor Inc. increased its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 106.5% in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm owned 1,819,874 shares of the computer maker’s stock after buying an additional 938,680 shares during the period. Bahl & Gaynor Inc. owned about 0.19% of HP worth $63,732,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Other institutional investors have also bought and sold shares of the company. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina grew its position in shares of HP by 1.0% during the fourth quarter. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina now owns 401,809 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $12,090,000 after purchasing an additional 4,102 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. grew its holdings in HP by 27.5% during the 1st quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. now owns 106,316 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,213,000 after buying an additional 22,909 shares in the last quarter. Chris Bulman Inc bought a new stake in shares of HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $88,000. State of Alaska Department of Revenue lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 85.9% in the first quarter. State of Alaska Department of Revenue now owns 174,585 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $5,275,000 after buying an additional 80,670 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Swiss National Bank boosted its position in shares of HP by 1.4% during the first quarter. Swiss National Bank now owns 2,819,100 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $85,193,000 after acquiring an additional 37,800 shares during the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ opened at $33.47 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.26 billion, a PE ratio of 11.31, a PEG ratio of 2.26 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s fifty day moving average is $35.38 and its 200 day moving average is $32.78. HP Inc. has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $39.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.37 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The company’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the company posted $0.86 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that HP Inc. will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP declared that its board has approved a share buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are usually an indication that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HPQ has been the topic of a number of research reports. Barclays reduced their price target on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. TD Cowen lifted their target price on HP from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup boosted their target price on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Bank of America raised their price target on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. upped their price objective on HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.55.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total transaction of $6,251,977.07. Following the completion of the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,335,450.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through this link. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

About HP

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.