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

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) saw some unusual options trading activity on Wednesday. Stock traders purchased 16,083 call options on the company. This is an increase of approximately 23% compared to the average volume of 13,041 call options.

HP Stock Up 0.1 %

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $28.13 on Friday. The stock has a market cap of $27.59 billion, a P/E ratio of 8.23, a P/E/G ratio of 2.31 and a beta of 1.05. The business has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.28 and a 200-day simple moving average of $28.83. HP has a fifty-two week low of $25.22 and a fifty-two week high of $33.90.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81. The firm had revenue of $13.19 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.56 billion. HP had a negative return on equity of 181.02% and a net margin of 6.45%. The firm’s quarterly revenue was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same period last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current year.

HP Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which was paid on Wednesday, April 3rd. Shareholders of record on Wednesday, March 13th were issued a dividend of $0.2756 per share. The ex-dividend date was Tuesday, March 12th. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.92%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 32.16%.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several analysts have commented on HPQ shares. StockNews.com cut shares of HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. HSBC raised shares of HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and boosted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $33.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price target on shares of HP from $22.00 to $24.00 and gave the stock an “underweight” rating in a report on Thursday, February 29th. One research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, one has assigned a hold rating and eight have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, HP currently has an average rating of “Moderate Buy” and an average target price of $33.11.

Insider Activity at HP

In other HP news, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction on Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $269,338.44. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. In other HP news, Director Robert R. Bennett sold 67,000 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, March 21st. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.01, for a total transaction of $2,010,670.00. Following the transaction, the director now owns 60,216 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $1,807,082.16. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at the SEC website. Also, insider Stephanie Liebman sold 8,708 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction dated Friday, March 8th. The shares were sold at an average price of $30.93, for a total transaction of $269,338.44. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 116,723 shares of company stock valued at $3,479,287 over the last 90 days. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

A number of institutional investors have recently made changes to their positions in the company. California Public Employees Retirement System boosted its position in HP by 3.9% during the 3rd quarter. California Public Employees Retirement System now owns 2,966,113 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $76,229,000 after acquiring an additional 112,427 shares during the period. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its position in HP by 23.6% during the third quarter. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. now owns 21,204 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $545,000 after buying an additional 4,054 shares during the period. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp raised its position in HP by 1.4% during the fourth quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 79,291 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $2,386,000 after buying an additional 1,091 shares during the period. Wealthfront Advisers LLC raised its position in HP by 8.8% during the third quarter. Wealthfront Advisers LLC now owns 62,575 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,608,000 after buying an additional 5,064 shares during the period. Finally, DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale raised its position in HP by 87.9% during the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 765,799 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $22,960,000 after buying an additional 358,231 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

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.