HP Sees Unusually Large Options Volume (NYSE:HPQ)

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Traders purchased 16,083 call options on the company. This represents an increase of 23% compared to the typical daily volume of 13,041 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of equities analysts have commented on HPQ shares. HSBC raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price objective for the stock from $30.00 to $33.00 in a research report on Wednesday, February 14th. Barclays lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, February 29th. Finally, StockNews.com cut shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Friday, March 1st. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has issued a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, HP presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.11.

Insider Activity

In related news, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total transaction of $2,010,670.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 60,216 shares in the company, valued at $1,807,082.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. In related news, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total transaction of $2,010,670.00. Following the transaction, the director now directly owns 60,216 shares in the company, valued at $1,807,082.16. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available through this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The stock was sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $269,338.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold 116,723 shares of company stock worth $3,479,287 over the last ninety days. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Inflows and Outflows

Several institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the business. Vanguard Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of HP by 12.3% in the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 117,509,674 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,019,999,000 after buying an additional 12,883,347 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. increased its stake in shares of HP by 4,180.9% in the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 9,516,510 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $286,352,000 after buying an additional 9,294,209 shares during the period. Norges Bank acquired a new position in shares of HP in the fourth quarter valued at approximately $187,264,000. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd increased its stake in shares of HP by 145.9% in the third quarter. Qube Research & Technologies Ltd now owns 6,090,872 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $156,535,000 after buying an additional 3,613,742 shares during the period. Finally, Hsbc Holdings PLC increased its stake in shares of HP by 104.6% in the third quarter. Hsbc Holdings PLC now owns 4,352,558 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $112,014,000 after buying an additional 2,225,530 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Trading Up 1.6 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $28.10 on Thursday. The company has a market cap of $27.56 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 8.22, a PEG ratio of 2.32 and a beta of 1.05. HP has a 12 month low of $25.22 and a 12 month high of $33.90. The stock has a 50-day moving average price of $29.30 and a two-hundred day moving average price of $28.84.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.81. The firm had revenue of $13.19 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.56 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 181.02% and a net margin of 6.45%. The business’s quarterly revenue was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm earned $0.75 earnings per share. On average, sell-side analysts predict that HP will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were paid a dividend of $0.2756 per share. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. HP’s payout ratio is 32.16%.

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.