Empowered Funds LLC Sells 165,988 Shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

Empowered Funds LLC decreased its stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 54.8% in the third quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). The institutional investor owned 137,130 shares of the computer maker’s stock after selling 165,988 shares during the quarter. Empowered Funds LLC’s holdings in HP were worth $4,919,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Other large investors also recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Wedge Capital Management L L P NC bought a new stake in shares of HP during the second quarter valued at approximately $62,672,000. DME Capital Management LP increased its holdings in HP by 108.7% during the second quarter. DME Capital Management LP now owns 3,373,030 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $118,124,000 after buying an additional 1,757,070 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA raised its stake in HP by 6.2% in the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $786,237,000 after buying an additional 1,319,731 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc lifted its holdings in HP by 11.3% during the second quarter. Legal & General Group Plc now owns 10,710,450 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $375,079,000 after buying an additional 1,089,848 shares during the period. Finally, Westwood Holdings Group Inc. bought a new stake in HP during the 2nd quarter valued at $38,044,000. 77.53% of the stock is owned by hedge funds and other institutional investors.

Insider Buying and Selling

In other 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 value of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. This represents a 100.00 % decrease in their position. The transaction was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $36.72 on Monday. The firm has a market capitalization of $35.39 billion, a PE ratio of 12.88, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.51 and a beta of 1.07. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $35.97 and its 200-day moving average price is $35.08. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $27.42 and a 1-year high of $39.52.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last posted its quarterly earnings results on Wednesday, August 28th. The computer maker reported $0.83 earnings per share for the quarter, missing the consensus estimate of $0.86 by ($0.03). HP had a net margin of 5.33% and a negative return on equity of 266.37%. The firm had revenue of $13.52 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.37 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.86 EPS. The firm’s revenue for the quarter was up 2.4% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, research analysts anticipate that HP Inc. will post 3.39 EPS for the current fiscal year.

HP declared that its board has initiated a share repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to repurchase up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock buyback plans are typically a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

Several research firms have recently commented on HPQ. JPMorgan Chase & Co. boosted their price target on HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research report on Friday, August 23rd. UBS Group increased their price target on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Bank of America downgraded shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective on the stock. in a research report on Friday, September 27th. Citigroup cut shares of HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 target price for the company. in a research report on Tuesday, October 1st. Finally, Morgan Stanley cut their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating on the stock in a report on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the company’s stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average target price of $35.55.

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.