Advisors Asset Management Inc. Grows Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Advisors Asset Management Inc. increased its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 0.3% during the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The firm owned 641,409 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 2,120 shares during the period. Advisors Asset Management Inc.’s holdings in HP were worth $23,007,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other institutional investors have also added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC purchased a new stake in HP in the second quarter worth about $62,672,000. DME Capital Management LP increased its position in HP by 108.7% during the 2nd quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 3,373,030 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $118,124,000 after buying an additional 1,757,070 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in 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 buying an additional 1,319,731 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake in shares of HP by 11.3% in the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $375,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,848 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. purchased a new position in shares of HP in the 2nd quarter worth about $38,044,000. Institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Insider Transactions at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares in the company, valued at $99.48. This trade represents a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Down 1.5 %

HPQ stock opened at $36.87 on Wednesday. HP Inc. has a 52 week low of $27.42 and a 52 week high of $39.52. The stock has a market capitalization of $35.53 billion, a PE ratio of 12.94, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.07. The firm has a 50 day moving average of $36.10 and a 200 day moving average of $35.21.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.86 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates 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 for the quarter was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.86 earnings per share. On average, equities research analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a stock repurchase program on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization permits the computer maker to reacquire up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback programs are typically an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms recently issued reports on HPQ. Barclays lowered their price objective 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. UBS Group raised their target price on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. decreased their target price on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday. Loop Capital dropped their price target on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have issued a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.45.

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.