Louisiana State Employees Retirement System Raises Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Louisiana State Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 12.9% in the third quarter, according to its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 55,100 shares of the computer maker’s stock after purchasing an additional 6,300 shares during the quarter. Louisiana State Employees Retirement System’s holdings in HP were worth $1,976,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. Vanguard Group Inc. boosted its holdings in HP by 2.6% in the first quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,649,919,000 after acquiring an additional 3,062,441 shares in the last quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA boosted its stake in HP by 6.2% in the 2nd quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $786,237,000 after purchasing an additional 1,319,731 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its position in HP by 3.3% during the 1st quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 12,674,646 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $383,028,000 after purchasing an additional 403,355 shares during the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc increased its stake in HP by 11.3% during the 2nd quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $375,079,000 after purchasing an additional 1,089,848 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Bank of New York Mellon Corp increased its stake in HP by 3.5% during the 2nd quarter. Bank of New York Mellon Corp now owns 8,402,432 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $294,253,000 after purchasing an additional 287,861 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $37.06 on Wednesday. HP Inc. has a 1 year low of $25.90 and a 1 year high of $39.52. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $35.60 and its 200 day moving average price is $34.28. The company has a market capitalization of $36.27 billion, a PE ratio of 12.52, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 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%. HP’s revenue was up 2.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the business earned $0.86 earnings per share. On average, equities analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has authorized a share buyback plan 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 plans are generally a sign that the company’s management believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Activity

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was 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 in the company, valued at $99.48. This trade represents a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. Company insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on HPQ. Bank of America lowered shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a report on Friday, September 27th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup downgraded HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company. in a report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, UBS Group increased their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One equities research 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. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price 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.