Short Interest in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) Expands By 11.7%

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the target of a large growth in short interest during the month of August. As of August 31st, there was short interest totalling 30,490,000 shares, a growth of 11.7% from the August 15th total of 27,300,000 shares. Approximately 3.2% of the shares of the company are short sold. Based on an average trading volume of 7,300,000 shares, the days-to-cover ratio is presently 4.2 days.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Friday, June 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.11, for a total transaction of $6,251,977.07. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now owns 64,676 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $2,335,450.36. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. In related news, insider Alex Cho sold 173,137 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction dated 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 approximately $2,335,450.36. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which can be accessed through this link. Also, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the firm’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 transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.41% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Institutional investors have recently modified their holdings of the company. Heritage Wealth Management Inc. acquired a new position in HP in the second quarter valued at $1,549,000. Sanctuary Advisors LLC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the 2nd quarter valued at about $3,373,000. PVG Asset Management Corp acquired a new stake in HP during the second quarter worth approximately $212,000. Cetera Investment Advisers increased its holdings in HP by 14.5% in the second quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 125,398 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $4,391,000 after purchasing an additional 15,905 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Truist Financial Corp lifted its stake in HP by 4.5% in the second quarter. Truist Financial Corp now owns 176,513 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $6,181,000 after buying an additional 7,678 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts recently commented on the stock. UBS Group raised their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Loop Capital reduced their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Wells Fargo & Company raised their target price on shares of HP from $25.00 to $30.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, May 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price target on shares of HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Barclays lowered their price target on HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, five have issued a hold rating and seven have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.55.

HP Price Performance

HPQ opened at $34.43 on Wednesday. HP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $39.52. The company’s 50 day moving average price is $35.24 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $32.95. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.69 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.63, a PEG ratio of 2.23 and a beta of 1.07.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). The business had revenue of $13.52 billion during the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.37 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The business’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. During the same period in the prior year, the firm earned $0.86 EPS. As a group, equities research analysts predict that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP declared that its Board of Directors has initiated a share buyback program on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization permits the computer maker to reacquire up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase programs are often a sign that the company’s board believes its shares are undervalued.

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.