HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Short Interest Update

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) saw a significant growth in short interest in August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 30,490,000 shares, a growth of 11.7% from the August 15th total of 27,300,000 shares. Based on an average daily volume of 7,300,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 4.2 days. Approximately 3.2% of the company’s stock are short sold.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HPQ has been the topic of several research reports. Loop Capital dropped their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, September 5th. Bank of America increased their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup lifted their target price on shares of HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays dropped their price target on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. 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 company. According to MarketBeat, the stock has an average rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.55.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total value of $6,251,977.07. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,335,450.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in HP by 2.6% during the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,649,919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,441 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA increased its position in shares of HP by 6.2% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $786,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319,731 shares during the period. LSV Asset Management increased its position in shares of HP by 3.3% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 12,674,646 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $383,028,000 after purchasing an additional 403,355 shares during the period. Legal & General Group Plc increased its holdings in HP by 11.3% in the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $375,079,000 after buying an additional 1,089,848 shares during the period. Finally, Northern Trust Corp raised its stake in shares of HP by 0.4% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,172,444 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $306,089,000 after buying an additional 40,884 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ traded up $0.44 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $33.76. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 7,769,004 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,868,070. HP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $39.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $33.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.36, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.07. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.29 and its 200 day simple moving average is $32.87.

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

HP announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase 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 generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

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.