Traders Buy High Volume of HP Put Options (NYSE:HPQ)

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) was the recipient of some unusual options trading on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 19,974 put options on the stock. This represents an increase of 56% compared to the typical daily volume of 12,776 put options.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

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

Institutional Trading of HP

A number of institutional investors and hedge funds have recently modified their holdings of the company. State Street Corp increased its position in shares of HP by 8.2% during the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $1,871,046,000 after purchasing an additional 3,923,161 shares during the period. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its holdings in shares of HP by 2.3% in the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 25,350,016 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $825,398,000 after purchasing an additional 579,525 shares in the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. lifted its stake in shares of HP by 4.2% during the fourth quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. now owns 14,776,697 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $482,164,000 after acquiring an additional 592,391 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp boosted its stake in shares of HP by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,795 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $419,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755,942 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Invesco Ltd. boosted its stake in HP by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,511,218 shares of the computer maker's stock valued at $310,351,000 after acquiring an additional 643,192 shares during the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Remove Ads

HP Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE:HPQ traded down $0.97 during mid-day trading on Tuesday, hitting $22.41. 7,335,201 shares of the company traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,655,642. HP has a 52-week low of $21.59 and a 52-week high of $39.80. The firm has a market cap of $21.13 billion, a P/E ratio of 7.96, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $30.58 and its 200 day simple moving average is $33.62.

HP (NYSE:HPQ - Get Free Report) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 EPS for the quarter, meeting the consensus estimate of $0.74. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The company had revenue of $13.50 billion during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.35 billion. Equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were issued a $0.2894 dividend. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a yield of 5.16%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. HP's dividend payout ratio is presently 41.37%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts recently issued reports on HPQ shares. Wells Fargo & Company boosted their target price on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an "underweight" rating in a research report on Thursday, February 20th. Sanford C. Bernstein boosted their target price on HP from $32.00 to $34.00 and gave the stock a "market perform" rating in a research report on Friday, January 3rd. StockNews.com raised shares of HP from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating in a research note on Thursday, March 27th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an "equal weight" rating for the company in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Finally, Loop Capital decreased their price objective on HP from $35.00 to $30.00 and set a "hold" rating for the company in a report on Tuesday, March 4th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have issued a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of "Hold" and a consensus price target of $36.14.

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.