Quadrature Capital Ltd Lowers Stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Quadrature Capital Ltd decreased its position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 35.9% during the third quarter, Holdings Channel reports. The firm owned 94,968 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 53,194 shares during the quarter. Quadrature Capital Ltd’s holdings in HP were worth $3,407,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

A number of other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Cetera Investment Advisers raised its holdings in shares of HP by 154.7% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Investment Advisers now owns 109,493 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,309,000 after buying an additional 66,510 shares during the period. Cetera Advisors LLC grew its position in HP by 43.9% in the 1st quarter. Cetera Advisors LLC now owns 38,796 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $1,172,000 after acquiring an additional 11,830 shares in the last quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC increased its stake in HP by 7.0% during the second quarter. Park Avenue Securities LLC now owns 31,129 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,090,000 after purchasing an additional 2,044 shares during the period. CWM LLC lifted its position in shares of HP by 6.2% during the second quarter. CWM LLC now owns 37,501 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $1,313,000 after purchasing an additional 2,195 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Valeo Financial Advisors LLC boosted its stake in shares of HP by 8.8% in the second quarter. Valeo Financial Advisors LLC now owns 10,495 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $368,000 after purchasing an additional 845 shares during the period. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors and hedge funds.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the company’s stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The shares were sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which can be accessed through the SEC website. Also, insider Alex Cho sold 10,298 shares of HP stock in a transaction dated Friday, November 29th. The shares were sold at an average price of $34.32, for a total transaction of $353,427.36. Following the completion of the sale, the insider now directly owns 64,676 shares in the company, valued at approximately $2,219,680.32. The trade was a 13.74 % decrease in their position. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

Analyst Ratings Changes

HPQ has been the topic of several recent research reports. UBS Group upped their target price on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Citigroup decreased their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating for the company in a report on Wednesday, November 27th. Loop Capital lowered their target price on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Hsbc Global Res lowered HP from a “strong-buy” rating to a “hold” rating in a research report on Friday, November 29th. Finally, Barclays boosted their price objective on HP from $32.00 to $35.00 and gave the stock an “equal weight” rating in a research report on Wednesday, November 27th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, nine have assigned a hold rating and three have issued a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $36.77.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $36.15 on Friday. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.79. The stock has a market cap of $34.84 billion, a PE ratio of 12.86, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 3.14 and a beta of 1.04. The firm has a fifty day moving average price of $36.61 and a 200 day moving average price of $35.70.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, hitting analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 253.39% and a net margin of 5.18%. The firm had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $0.90 EPS. The firm’s quarterly revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, equities analysts expect that HP Inc. will post 3.56 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP announced that its Board of Directors has approved a share buyback plan on Wednesday, August 28th that permits the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization permits the computer maker to reacquire up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are usually an indication that the company’s leadership believes its shares are undervalued.

HP Increases Dividend

The firm also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Investors of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a $0.2894 dividend. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 annualized dividend and a yield of 3.20%. HP’s dividend payout ratio is 39.15%.

HP 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.