Man Group plc Buys New Holdings in HP Inc. $HPQ

Man Group plc bought a new position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) in the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm bought 6,801,428 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $149,223,000.

A number of other institutional investors have also recently bought and sold shares of HPQ. Garner Asset Management Corp acquired a new stake in shares of HP during the 4th quarter valued at about $25,000. SHP Wealth Management acquired a new position in HP in the fourth quarter worth about $26,000. Union Savings Bank bought a new position in HP during the fourth quarter worth about $28,000. DV Equities LLC acquired a new stake in HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Finally, Aberdeen Wealth Management LLC acquired a new stake in HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $29,000. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

Analyst Ratings Changes

A number of equities analysts have recently issued reports on the company. UBS Group increased their target price on HP from $20.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Wells Fargo & Company upped their price target on HP from $18.00 to $20.00 and gave the company an “underweight” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 28th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. increased their price objective on HP from $22.00 to $26.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, May 28th. Bank of America lifted their price objective on HP from $16.00 to $18.00 and gave the company an “underperform” rating in a report on Thursday, May 28th. Finally, The Goldman Sachs Group boosted their target price on shares of HP from $19.00 to $21.00 and gave the company a “sell” rating in a research note on Wednesday, August 12th. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a Strong Buy rating, eight have assigned a Hold rating and five have issued a Sell rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Reduce” and a consensus target price of $24.17.

HP Stock Up 3.4%

HP stock opened at $29.56 on Wednesday. The stock has a 50-day simple moving average of $25.96 and a 200 day simple moving average of $22.55. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $17.56 and a 12-month high of $32.19. The stock has a market capitalization of $27.04 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 10.91, a P/E/G ratio of 4.74 and a beta of 1.17.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last issued its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, May 27th. The computer maker reported $0.86 EPS for the quarter, topping analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.72 by $0.14. The firm had revenue of $14.41 billion for the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $13.99 billion. HP had a net margin of 4.45% and a negative return on equity of 581.36%. The company’s revenue was up 9.0% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter in the prior year, the firm earned $0.71 EPS. As a group, sell-side analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.03 EPS for the current year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The business also recently announced a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Wednesday, October 7th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, September 9th will be given a dividend of $0.30 per share. This represents a $1.20 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 4.1%. The ex-dividend date is Wednesday, September 9th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is presently 44.28%.

Insider Activity

In other news, insider David P. Mcquarrie sold 21,048 shares of the stock in a transaction that occurred on Friday, August 7th. The shares were sold at an average price of $29.98, for a total transaction of $631,019.04. Following the sale, the insider directly owned 39,580 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,186,608.40. This represents a 34.72% decrease in their ownership of the stock. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. The transaction was executed under a pre-arranged Rule 10b5-1 trading plan. Insiders have sold 52,620 shares of company stock worth $1,478,622 in the last quarter. 0.18% of the stock is currently owned by corporate insiders.

HP Company Profile

HP Inc is an American multinational information technology company that designs, manufactures and sells personal computing devices, printers and related supplies and services. Its product portfolio spans consumer and commercial notebooks and desktops, workstations, displays and accessories, as well as an extensive line of printing hardware that includes home, office and production printers. HP also provides consumables such as ink and toner, managed print services, device deployment and lifecycle support, and software for device and print management.

Founded from the original Hewlett‑Packard Company, HP Inc became a separately traded public company in 2015 following a corporate split that created Hewlett Packard Enterprise to focus on enterprise hardware and services.