HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Short Interest Down 5.5% in October

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the target of a significant drop in short interest during the month of October. As of October 15th, there was short interest totalling 42,820,000 shares, a drop of 5.5% from the September 30th total of 45,310,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,500,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 5.7 days. Approximately 4.5% of the company’s shares are sold short.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred 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 of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Philip James Wealth Mangement LLC bought a new position in HP in the 3rd quarter valued at about $14,205,000. Consolidated Planning Corp acquired a new stake in shares of HP in the 3rd quarter worth approximately $4,910,000. Olympiad Research LP bought a new position in shares of HP in the third quarter valued at approximately $582,000. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its stake in shares of HP by 16.1% during the third quarter. Principal Financial Group Inc. now owns 1,153,924 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $41,391,000 after acquiring an additional 160,268 shares during the period. Finally, Montecito Bank & Trust raised its holdings in HP by 59.7% during the third quarter. Montecito Bank & Trust now owns 27,144 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $974,000 after purchasing an additional 10,145 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Price Performance

NYSE:HPQ traded up $0.70 during mid-day trading on Friday, reaching $36.22. The stock had a trading volume of 403,609 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,756,337. The company has a market capitalization of $34.91 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.66 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 1-year low of $26.67 and a 1-year high of $39.52. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.64 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $34.30.

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

HP announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock 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 repurchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

HPQ has been the subject of a number of analyst reports. Citigroup cut HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a report on Friday, August 23rd. Morgan Stanley dropped their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group upped their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Barclays dropped their target price on HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $35.55.

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.