Stock Traders Purchase High Volume of Put Options on HP (NYSE:HPQ)

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) was the target of unusually large options trading activity on Thursday. Stock investors purchased 19,974 put options on the stock. This is an increase of 56% compared to the typical daily volume of 12,776 put options.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

HPQ has been the subject of several recent analyst reports. StockNews.com raised HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating in a report on Thursday, March 27th. Barclays increased their price target on HP from $35.00 to $36.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research note on Friday, February 28th. TD Cowen lowered their price objective on HP from $39.00 to $38.00 and set a “hold” rating on the stock in a research note on Friday, February 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price objective on shares of HP from $30.00 to $35.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 20th. Finally, Morgan Stanley lowered their price target on shares of HP from $36.00 to $35.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a research report on Friday, February 28th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, ten have assigned a hold rating and two have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. According to MarketBeat, HP presently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $36.14.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other news, insider Anneliese Olson sold 21,545 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 27th. The shares were sold at an average price of $28.49, for a total transaction of $613,817.05. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 169 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $4,814.81. The trade was a 99.22 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at this link. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 15,646 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction that occurred on Monday, March 24th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.00, for a total value of $453,734.00. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.38% of the stock is owned by insiders.

Hedge Funds Weigh In On HP

Several institutional investors and hedge funds have recently added to or reduced their stakes in HPQ. State Street Corp boosted its holdings in HP by 8.2% in the third quarter. State Street Corp now owns 51,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,871,046,000 after acquiring an additional 3,923,161 shares in the last quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC increased its position in shares of HP by 2.3% during the 4th 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 during the last quarter. Pacer Advisors Inc. grew its position in 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 buying an additional 592,391 shares during the period. Northern Trust Corp raised its holdings in HP by 15.8% in the 4th quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 12,844,795 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $419,126,000 after purchasing an additional 1,755,942 shares during the period. Finally, Invesco Ltd. increased its position in HP by 7.3% in the fourth quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 9,511,218 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $310,351,000 after buying an additional 643,192 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Stock Performance

NYSE:HPQ traded down $4.05 during midday trading on Thursday, reaching $23.83. 7,642,401 shares of the stock traded hands, compared to its average volume of 7,469,265. The stock has a market capitalization of $22.46 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.48, a PEG ratio of 2.96 and a beta of 1.09. The company has a fifty day moving average of $31.17 and a 200 day moving average of $33.86. HP has a 12 month low of $22.97 and a 12 month high of $39.80.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its earnings results on Thursday, February 27th. The computer maker reported $0.74 earnings per share (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 firm had revenue of $13.50 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.35 billion. On average, analysts predict that HP will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP Announces Dividend

The company also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, March 12th were paid a $0.2894 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend was Wednesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 4.86%. HP’s payout ratio is 41.37%.

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.