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

HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) saw some unusual options trading activity on Thursday. Traders bought 17,909 call options on the company. This is an increase of 38% compared to the typical daily volume of 12,988 call options.

Insider Activity

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

Institutional Investors Weigh In On HP

Several large investors have recently bought and sold shares of HPQ. Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. Ltd. raised its stake in HP by 23.6% during the 3rd 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 last quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp lifted its stake in shares of HP by 1.4% in the 4th quarter. Alaska Permanent Fund Corp now owns 79,291 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $2,386,000 after purchasing an additional 1,091 shares during the period. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale boosted its holdings in shares of HP by 87.9% in the fourth quarter. DekaBank Deutsche Girozentrale now owns 765,799 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $22,960,000 after buying an additional 358,231 shares during the last quarter. CHURCHILL MANAGEMENT Corp bought a new stake in HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $1,758,000. Finally, Flputnam Investment Management Co. purchased a new stake in HP during the fourth quarter valued at approximately $211,000. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades

A number of brokerages have issued reports on HPQ. Bank of America upped their price objective on shares of HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock a “buy” rating in a research report on Thursday, May 16th. HSBC upgraded HP from a “hold” rating to a “buy” rating and lifted their price target for the stock from $30.00 to $33.00 in a report on Wednesday, February 14th. StockNews.com downgraded HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “buy” rating in a research note on Friday, March 1st. Finally, Barclays upgraded HP from an “underweight” rating to an “equal weight” rating and lifted their target price for the stock from $24.00 to $30.00 in a research note on Tuesday. Two equities research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and eight have given a buy rating to the stock. According to MarketBeat.com, the company has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $34.00.

HP Price Performance

HPQ traded up $0.16 on Thursday, hitting $33.17. The company had a trading volume of 1,787,090 shares, compared to its average volume of 7,571,945. HP has a 52-week low of $25.22 and a 52-week high of $33.90. The stock has a fifty day simple moving average of $29.43 and a 200-day simple moving average of $29.29. The firm has a market capitalization of $32.53 billion, a P/E ratio of 9.71, a P/E/G ratio of 2.45 and a beta of 1.06.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings data on Wednesday, February 28th. The computer maker reported $0.81 earnings per share for the quarter, meeting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.81. The company had revenue of $13.19 billion during 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 revenue for the quarter was down 4.4% on a year-over-year basis. During the same quarter last year, the company earned $0.75 EPS. Equities research analysts expect that HP will post 3.42 earnings per share for the current fiscal year.

HP Dividend Announcement

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Saturday, July 13th. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, June 12th will be paid a $0.2756 dividend. This represents a $1.10 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.32%. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, June 12th. HP’s dividend payout ratio is currently 32.16%.

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.