HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Sees Large Drop in Short Interest

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the recipient of a significant decrease in short interest in the month of June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 20,900,000 shares, a decrease of 6.3% from the June 15th total of 22,310,000 shares. Currently, 2.1% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 7,950,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 2.6 days.

HP Stock Up 0.3 %

Shares of HPQ traded up $0.12 during mid-day trading on Wednesday, hitting $38.12. The stock had a trading volume of 8,906,451 shares, compared to its average volume of 8,108,338. The company has a market cap of $37.30 billion, a PE ratio of 12.92, a PEG ratio of 2.38 and a beta of 1.09. The company’s fifty day simple moving average is $34.56 and its two-hundred day simple moving average is $31.07. HP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $39.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The computer maker reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.01. The company had revenue of $12.80 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $12.61 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 230.39% and a net margin of 5.60%. The business’s revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.80 EPS. Equities analysts expect that HP will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be given a $0.2756 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 2.89%. HP’s payout ratio is 37.16%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the stock in a transaction dated 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 transaction, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,335,450.36. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

Institutional Trading of HP

Hedge funds have recently made changes to their positions in the stock. Treasurer of the State of North Carolina lifted its holdings in shares of HP by 1.0% in the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its stake in HP by 1.4% during the 4th quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 79,291 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,386,000 after acquiring an additional 1,091 shares in the last quarter. Daiwa Securities Group Inc. raised its stake 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 acquiring an additional 22,909 shares in the last quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its stake in HP by 87.9% during the 4th quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 765,799 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $22,960,000 after acquiring an additional 358,231 shares in the last quarter. Finally, CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in HP during the 4th quarter valued at $1,758,000. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

A number of research firms have recently commented on HPQ. Citigroup raised 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. Morgan Stanley increased their target price on HP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Wells Fargo & Company increased their target price on HP from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Barclays increased their target price on HP from $30.00 to $33.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their target price on HP from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.64.

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.