HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Sees Significant Growth in Short Interest

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the recipient of a significant growth in short interest in the month of July. As of July 31st, there was short interest totalling 24,390,000 shares, a growth of 11.6% from the July 15th total of 21,850,000 shares. Approximately 2.5% of the company’s shares are short sold. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 8,100,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 3.0 days.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

A number of analysts have recently weighed in on HPQ shares. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $38.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. TD Cowen raised their price target on shares of HP from $30.00 to $32.00 and gave the stock a “hold” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Morgan Stanley downgraded shares of HP from an “overweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and set a $37.00 price target for the company. in a research report on Monday. Bank of America raised their price target on shares of HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 30th. Finally, Citigroup lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $35.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have assigned a hold rating and seven have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to data from MarketBeat, HP currently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $34.64.

HP Stock Down 3.3 %

HP stock traded down $1.19 during midday trading on Monday, hitting $34.72. The company’s stock had a trading volume of 3,658,280 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,807,289. The stock’s 50-day moving average price is $35.67 and its 200-day moving average price is $32.00. HP has a 12 month low of $25.22 and a 12 month high of $39.52. The company has a market capitalization of $33.98 billion, a PE ratio of 11.81, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.24 and a beta of 1.09.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, May 29th. The computer maker reported $0.82 EPS for the quarter, topping the consensus estimate of $0.81 by $0.01. The firm had revenue of $12.80 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $12.61 billion. HP had a net margin of 5.60% and a negative return on equity of 230.39%. HP’s revenue for the quarter was down .8% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the previous year, the business earned $0.80 earnings per share. As a group, equities analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.45 EPS for the current 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 paid a $0.2756 dividend. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 11th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.18%. HP’s payout ratio is 37.16%.

Insider Activity at HP

In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, June 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total value of $6,251,977.07. Following the transaction, the insider now owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at $2,335,450.36. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this link. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several large investors have recently made changes to their positions in HPQ. Norges Bank acquired a new stake in HP in the 4th quarter worth approximately $187,264,000. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its holdings in HP by 2.6% in the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $3,649,919,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,441 shares during the last quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group lifted its holdings in HP by 1,472.4% in the 4th quarter. Schroder Investment Management Group now owns 2,264,081 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $68,126,000 after purchasing an additional 2,120,096 shares during the last quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System lifted its holdings in HP by 69.6% in the 4th quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 5,030,982 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $151,382,000 after purchasing an additional 2,064,869 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Wedge Capital Management L L P NC acquired a new stake in HP in the 2nd quarter worth approximately $62,672,000. Institutional investors 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.