William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. Takes $645,000 Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

William B. Walkup & Associates Inc. acquired a new stake in shares of HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) during the 2nd quarter, according to its most recent 13F filing with the SEC. The firm acquired 18,416 shares of the computer maker’s stock, valued at approximately $645,000.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently modified their holdings of the company. Vanguard Group Inc. raised its position in shares of HP by 2.6% during the 1st quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 120,778,246 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $3,649,919,000 after purchasing an additional 3,062,441 shares during the period. Primecap Management Co. CA grew its stake in HP by 6.2% during the second quarter. Primecap Management Co. CA now owns 22,451,096 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $786,237,000 after acquiring an additional 1,319,731 shares in the last quarter. LSV Asset Management grew its stake in HP by 3.3% during the first quarter. LSV Asset Management now owns 12,674,646 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $383,028,000 after acquiring an additional 403,355 shares in the last quarter. Legal & General Group Plc grew its stake 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 valued at $375,079,000 after acquiring an additional 1,089,848 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Northern Trust Corp grew its stake in HP by 0.4% during the fourth quarter. Northern Trust Corp now owns 10,172,444 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $306,089,000 after acquiring an additional 40,884 shares in the last quarter. 77.53% of the stock is currently owned by institutional investors.

Insider Activity at HP

In other news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated 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 completion of the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares in the company, valued at approximately $99.48. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the SEC, which is available at the SEC website. 0.41% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ opened at $35.41 on Monday. HP Inc. has a 1-year low of $25.22 and a 1-year high of $39.52. The company has a 50-day moving average of $34.97 and a 200 day moving average of $33.24. The firm has a market capitalization of $34.65 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 11.96, a PEG ratio of 2.35 and a beta of 1.07.

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

HP announced that its board has approved a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its stock through open market purchases. Stock repurchase plans are generally an indication that the company’s board believes its stock is undervalued.

Analysts Set New Price Targets

HPQ has been the subject of several research analyst reports. Bank of America 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 note on Friday. Barclays cut their target price on shares of HP from $33.00 to $32.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. UBS Group lifted their price objective 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. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lifted their price objective on shares of HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the stock an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Finally, Morgan Stanley dropped their price objective on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. One investment analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, six have given a hold rating and six have issued a buy rating to the company. According to MarketBeat.com, the company presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $35.55.

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.