First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. Raises Position in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ)

First Trust Direct Indexing L.P. lifted its stake in HP Inc. (NYSE:HPQ) by 3.2% in the 3rd quarter, Holdings Channel.com reports. The institutional investor owned 38,208 shares of the computer maker’s stock after acquiring an additional 1,175 shares during the quarter. First Trust Direct Indexing L.P.’s holdings in HP were worth $1,371,000 as of its most recent SEC filing.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds also recently modified their holdings of the stock. LVW Advisors LLC boosted its position in shares of HP by 1.2% in the third quarter. LVW Advisors LLC now owns 23,884 shares of the computer maker’s stock worth $857,000 after buying an additional 278 shares during the period. Castleview Partners LLC grew its stake in HP by 8.1% during the 3rd quarter. Castleview Partners LLC now owns 3,856 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $138,000 after purchasing an additional 289 shares in the last quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc grew its stake in HP by 5.9% during the 3rd quarter. Versant Capital Management Inc now owns 5,321 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $191,000 after purchasing an additional 297 shares in the last quarter. WMG Financial Advisors LLC grew its stake in HP by 4.2% during the 2nd quarter. WMG Financial Advisors LLC now owns 7,835 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $274,000 after purchasing an additional 315 shares in the last quarter. Finally, Old Port Advisors grew its stake in HP by 3.4% during the 3rd quarter. Old Port Advisors now owns 9,612 shares of the computer maker’s stock valued at $345,000 after purchasing an additional 317 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.53% of the company’s stock.

HP Trading Down 2.8 %

Shares of NYSE HPQ opened at $35.52 on Friday. The company has a market cap of $34.23 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 12.46, a price-to-earnings-growth ratio of 2.64 and a beta of 1.07. HP Inc. has a 12-month low of $25.95 and a 12-month high of $39.52. The stock’s 50 day simple moving average is $35.64 and its 200 day simple moving average is $34.30.

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

HP announced that its Board of Directors has authorized a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that allows the company to buyback $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This buyback authorization allows the computer maker to buy up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares buyback plans are generally a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its shares are undervalued.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of equities research analysts have weighed in on the company. JPMorgan Chase & Co. raised their price objective on HP from $38.00 to $42.00 and gave the company an “overweight” rating in a research note on Friday, August 23rd. Citigroup lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Tuesday, October 1st. Bank of America lowered HP from a “buy” rating to a “neutral” rating and set a $37.00 price objective for the company. in a research note on Friday, September 27th. UBS Group raised their price objective on HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the company a “neutral” rating in a research note on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley decreased their target price on HP from $37.00 to $36.00 and set an “equal weight” rating for the company in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have given a hold rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the company. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus target price of $35.55.

Insider Buying and Selling at HP

In other HP news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of HP stock in a transaction on Thursday, September 12th. The stock was sold at an average price of $33.16, for a total transaction of $7,013,373.16. Following the sale, the chief executive officer now owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 0.00 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a legal filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. 0.41% of the stock is owned by company insiders.

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.