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

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the recipient of unusually large options trading on Monday. Stock traders purchased 26,861 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 63% compared to the typical daily volume of 16,470 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of research analysts recently weighed in on the company. Barclays dropped their price objective on HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital cut their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, September 5th. UBS Group raised their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Morgan Stanley lowered their target price on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. One equities research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and five have given a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.55.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE HPQ opened at $36.97 on Wednesday. The firm has a market capitalization of $36.18 billion, a PE ratio of 12.49, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.67 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a one year low of $25.67 and a one year high of $39.52. The company has a 50-day simple moving average of $35.09 and a 200-day simple moving average of $33.75.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last announced its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). The firm 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%. The business’s revenue was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period last year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. Equities analysts forecast that HP will post 3.39 earnings per share for the current year.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization authorizes the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total value of $7,013,373.16. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $99.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is accessible through this hyperlink. Corporate insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors have recently bought and sold shares of the stock. V Square Quantitative Management LLC boosted its stake in HP by 32.9% during the 4th quarter. V Square Quantitative Management LLC now owns 15,759 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $474,000 after purchasing an additional 3,904 shares in the last quarter. Syon Capital LLC bought a new position in HP during the fourth quarter valued at about $273,000. EP Wealth Advisors LLC boosted its stake in HP by 65.9% during the fourth quarter. EP Wealth Advisors LLC now owns 32,580 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $980,000 after buying an additional 12,946 shares in the last quarter. Richardson Financial Services Inc. acquired a new position in HP during the fourth quarter worth about $76,000. Finally, Fisher Asset Management LLC bought a new stake in HP in the fourth quarter worth about $472,000. 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.