Stock Traders Purchase Large Volume of Call Options on HP (NYSE:HPQ)

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the recipient of unusually large options trading activity on Tuesday. Investors acquired 19,642 call options on the company. This is an increase of 55% compared to the typical volume of 12,641 call options.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HPQ has been the topic of several recent research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their price target on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research note on Thursday, February 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein lifted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the company a “market perform” rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. Morgan Stanley reduced their price target on HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Friday, February 28th. StockNews.com raised HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, March 27th. Finally, Barclays increased their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the company an “equal weight” rating in a report on Friday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the company presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.14.

HP Trading Up 0.4 %

HPQ opened at $27.80 on Wednesday. The stock’s fifty day simple moving average is $31.28 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.91. HP has a 1-year low of $27.30 and a 1-year high of $39.80. The stock has a market cap of $26.20 billion, a PE ratio of 9.89, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.74. HP had a net margin of 5.18% and a negative return on equity of 253.39%. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. Equities analysts forecast that HP will post 3.56 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 12th will be issued a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 4.16%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, March 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is 41.37%.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The stock was sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total value of $613,817.05. Following the sale, the insider now directly owns 169 shares in the company, valued at $4,814.81. The trade was a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the stock in a transaction dated Monday, March 24th. The stock was sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total value of $453,734.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Company insiders own 0.38% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Amundi increased its position in HP by 15.9% during the fourth quarter. Amundi now owns 6,561,399 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $217,319,000 after acquiring an additional 899,349 shares during the period. Principal Financial Group Inc. increased its holdings 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 worth $41,391,000 after purchasing an additional 160,268 shares during the period. Oak Thistle LLC increased its holdings in shares of HP by 169.3% during the fourth quarter. Oak Thistle LLC now owns 34,682 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,132,000 after purchasing an additional 21,805 shares during the period. Tidal Investments LLC boosted its stake in shares of HP by 47.5% in the third quarter. Tidal Investments LLC now owns 146,608 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $5,259,000 after buying an additional 47,230 shares during the period. Finally, MML Investors Services LLC boosted its stake in shares of HP by 35.0% in the third quarter. MML Investors Services LLC now owns 62,523 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,243,000 after buying an additional 16,207 shares during the period. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

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.