HP (NYSE:HPQ) Issues Q1 Earnings Guidance

HP (NYSE:HPQ) issued an update on its first quarter earnings guidance on Tuesday morning. The company provided EPS guidance of $0.70-0.76 for the period, compared to the consensus EPS estimate of $0.85. HP also updated its FY 2025 guidance to 3.450-3.750 EPS.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

Several equities research analysts have commented on the company. Loop Capital dropped their price target on HP from $37.00 to $35.00 and set a “hold” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, September 5th. Citigroup cut their price target on shares of HP from $37.00 to $36.50 and set a “neutral” rating on the stock in a report on Wednesday. JPMorgan Chase & Co. reduced their price target on shares of HP from $42.00 to $41.00 and set an “overweight” rating on the stock in a research report on Wednesday, November 20th. UBS Group increased their price objective on shares of HP from $34.00 to $37.00 and gave the stock a “neutral” rating in a research report on Thursday, August 29th. Finally, Morgan Stanley reduced their target price 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 research analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating, seven have assigned a hold rating and four have issued a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat.com, the stock presently has an average rating of “Hold” and a consensus price target of $36.32.

HP Price Performance

Shares of HPQ stock opened at $34.66 on Thursday. The company’s fifty day moving average price is $36.56 and its two-hundred day moving average price is $35.52. The firm has a market capitalization of $33.40 billion, a P/E ratio of 12.16, a P/E/G ratio of 2.70 and a beta of 1.07. HP has a 12 month low of $27.42 and a 12 month high of $39.79.

HP (NYSE:HPQ) last released its quarterly earnings results on Tuesday, November 26th. The computer maker reported $0.93 EPS for the quarter, hitting the consensus estimate of $0.93. HP had a negative return on equity of 266.37% and a net margin of 5.33%. The business had revenue of $14.06 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $13.99 billion. During the same quarter in the previous year, the firm posted $0.90 earnings per share. The company’s revenue was up 1.7% compared to the same quarter last year. On average, sell-side analysts anticipate that HP will post 3.39 EPS for the current year.

HP Increases Dividend

The business also recently declared a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Thursday, January 2nd. Stockholders of record on Wednesday, December 11th will be given a dividend of $0.2894 per share. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Wednesday, December 11th. This represents a $1.16 dividend on an annualized basis and a dividend yield of 3.34%. This is an increase from HP’s previous quarterly dividend of $0.28. HP’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 38.60%.

HP announced that its board has initiated a stock repurchase plan on Wednesday, August 28th that authorizes the company to repurchase $10.00 billion in outstanding shares. This repurchase authorization authorizes the computer maker to purchase up to 28.9% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase plans are usually a sign that the company’s board of directors believes its stock is undervalued.

Insider Transactions at HP

In related news, CEO Enrique Lores sold 211,501 shares of the business’s stock in a transaction dated Thursday, September 12th. The stock was 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 directly owns 3 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $99.48. The trade was a 100.00 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The sale was disclosed in a filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available through this link. Insiders own 0.41% of the company’s stock.

HP Company 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.