Investors show unrest at HP’s re-direction in strategy

Shares in Hewlett-Packard Co. have been climbing back slowly from a six-year low Friday when HP announced it would shut down its mobile business, sell its PC division, and buy software maker Autonomy for $11.7 billion. In answer to this news, shareholders sank HP 20% Friday. HPQ has risen very slightly this week.

Using FactSet Ownership, we can see that the top 20 holders of HPQ currently, traditional index and value investors, account for just over one-third of the shareholder base.

Over time, however, both mutual fund managers (24% to 21.8%) and investment managers (32% to 27.9%) have reduced their overall holdings in the past year, while hedge funds have more than doubled their stake in HPQ (1.8 %to 3.9%).

Looking at Hewlett-Packard’s latest acquisition, the top 20 investors in Autonomy account for well over half (55.8%) the company, with insiders (founders) still controlling almost 10%.

In the past year, investment advisers have slashed their stake in the company from over 37% to 31%, while mutual fund managers have more than doubled their holdings from 6% to more than 13.8%.

Hewlett-Packard is moving away from the consumer market, where its peers included Apple, Samsung and other handheld phone providers to the corporate market, where it will be up against the likes of IBM, Oracle, and Cisco.

Will investors get on board with the company's new direction, or will HPQ continue to sink?

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