Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP) Short Interest Update

Helmerich & Payne, Inc. (NYSE:HP - Get Free Report) was the target of a large decrease in short interest in November. As of November 30th, there was short interest totalling 12,070,000 shares, a decrease of 5.1% from the November 15th total of 12,720,000 shares. Currently, 12.7% of the shares of the company are sold short. Based on an average daily volume of 1,540,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 7.8 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

HP has been the topic of a number of recent analyst reports. Royal Bank of Canada lowered their price target on shares of Helmerich & Payne from $44.00 to $41.00 and set a "sector perform" rating on the stock in a report on Friday, November 15th. Benchmark reiterated a "hold" rating on shares of Helmerich & Payne in a research report on Thursday, November 21st. The Goldman Sachs Group dropped their price objective on Helmerich & Payne from $38.00 to $34.00 and set a "sell" rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Barclays reduced their target price on Helmerich & Payne from $39.00 to $36.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Wednesday, November 20th. Finally, Citigroup dropped their price target on shares of Helmerich & Payne from $41.00 to $33.00 and set a "neutral" rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, September 13th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating, two have assigned a buy rating and one has given a strong buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, Helmerich & Payne presently has an average rating of "Hold" and a consensus target price of $38.57.

Helmerich & Payne Price Performance

HP stock traded down $0.34 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, reaching $32.64. The company's stock had a trading volume of 1,797,120 shares, compared to its average volume of 1,377,905. The company has a current ratio of 2.67, a quick ratio of 2.40 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.61. The company's 50 day moving average is $34.61 and its two-hundred day moving average is $34.56. Helmerich & Payne has a fifty-two week low of $29.46 and a fifty-two week high of $44.11. The stock has a market cap of $3.22 billion, a PE ratio of 9.58, a P/E/G ratio of 4.21 and a beta of 1.39.

Helmerich & Payne (NYSE:HP - Get Free Report) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, November 13th. The oil and gas company reported $0.76 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.76. The firm had revenue of $693.79 million during the quarter, compared to analysts' expectations of $695.99 million. Helmerich & Payne had a return on equity of 12.44% and a net margin of 12.48%. The business's revenue for the quarter was up 5.2% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the firm earned $0.69 earnings per share. Equities research analysts expect that Helmerich & Payne will post 3.12 EPS for the current year.

Helmerich & Payne Dividend Announcement

The company also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, February 28th. Shareholders of record on Friday, February 14th will be issued a $0.25 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Friday, February 14th. This represents a $1.00 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.06%. Helmerich & Payne's payout ratio is 29.07%.

Institutional Trading of Helmerich & Payne

Several institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in HP. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP lifted its holdings in shares of Helmerich & Payne by 3.3% in the 2nd quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 5,576,795 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $201,543,000 after acquiring an additional 176,179 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp boosted its position in shares of Helmerich & Payne by 0.8% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 4,182,972 shares of the oil and gas company's stock worth $127,246,000 after buying an additional 34,395 shares during the period. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its stake in shares of Helmerich & Payne by 9.4% in the second quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 3,826,851 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $138,302,000 after buying an additional 327,802 shares in the last quarter. Earnest Partners LLC raised its holdings in shares of Helmerich & Payne by 15.7% in the 2nd quarter. Earnest Partners LLC now owns 3,469,609 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $125,392,000 after buying an additional 471,420 shares during the period. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC raised its holdings in shares of Helmerich & Payne by 1.0% in the 3rd quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 2,247,214 shares of the oil and gas company's stock valued at $68,373,000 after buying an additional 22,875 shares during the period. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 96.05% of the company's stock.

Helmerich & Payne Company Profile

Founded in 1920, Helmerich & Payne, Inc (H&P) NYSE: HP is committed to delivering industry leading levels of drilling productivity and reliability. H&P operates with the highest level of integrity, safety and innovation to deliver superior results for its customers and returns for shareholders.