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

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the target of a significant decline in short interest in June. As of June 15th, there was short interest totalling 22,310,000 shares, a decline of 5.3% from the May 31st total of 23,570,000 shares. Based on an average trading volume of 7,940,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is currently 2.8 days. Currently, 2.3% of the shares of the stock are short sold.

HP Stock Performance

HPQ opened at $34.80 on Wednesday. The stock has a market cap of $34.05 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.76, a P/E/G ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.09. The stock’s 50 day moving average price is $32.86 and its 200-day moving average price is $30.63. HP has a one year low of $25.22 and a one year high of $39.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The computer maker reported $0.82 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, beating analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81 by $0.01. The firm 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%. HP’s quarterly revenue was down .8% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the previous year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, analysts predict that HP will post 3.45 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, September 11th will be issued a $0.2756 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $1.10 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.17%. HP’s payout ratio is 37.16%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total value 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 sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this hyperlink. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Trading of HP

Large investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton lifted its holdings in HP by 84.6% during the fourth quarter. Rosenberg Matthew Hamilton now owns 866 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $26,000 after buying an additional 397 shares during the period. Turtle Creek Wealth Advisors LLC purchased a new stake in HP during the fourth quarter worth $28,000. Sawyer & Company Inc lifted its holdings in HP by 900.0% during the first quarter. Sawyer & Company Inc now owns 1,000 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $30,000 after buying an additional 900 shares during the period. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC lifted its holdings in HP by 116.7% during the fourth quarter. Janiczek Wealth Management LLC now owns 1,051 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 566 shares during the period. Finally, Rise Advisors LLC lifted its holdings in HP by 377.9% during the first quarter. Rise Advisors LLC now owns 1,061 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $32,000 after buying an additional 839 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HPQ has been the topic of several research reports. Wells Fargo & Company lifted their target price on HP from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their target price on HP from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley lifted their target price on HP from $36.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. Citigroup boosted their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, UBS Group boosted their price objective on HP from $31.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 30th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, four have issued a hold rating and eight have assigned a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average 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.