HP Inc. (HPQ) earnings on August 26, 2026
Prior outlook: Pessimistic Outcome: Accurate
The stock fell sharply, dropping as much as 14% despite analysts citing higher targets after better-than-expected results. It recovered some ground to end down 3%.
HPQ price around the earnings
29.63
Change: -2.9%
2026-08-27, 20:00 UTC
- Price: green if it ends above the starting price; red if it ends below
- Start of the measured window
- End of the measured window
- Market open
- No trading (market closed)
- Starting price
Prior thesis
Prior outlook: Pessimistic Outcome: Accurate
- Thesis published
- Results released
Analysts expect lower Q3 earnings with a pessimistic scenario, despite a strong past beat rate.
Context analyzed before publication
- Trend
- Trajectory scores consistently negative, indicating increasing pessimism despite strong 30d trend strength.
Analysts
Evidence
- Analyst consensus
- Hold
- Consensus average (1-5)
- 3.24
- Analysts covering the stock
- 16
- Average price target
- 23.41
- Lowest price target
- 17
- Highest price target
- 32
- Upside to price target
- -23.7%
- Quarterly earnings growth
- 10.8%
- Revenue growth
- 9%
- Forward EPS
- 3
- Trailing EPS
- 2.7
- Analyst moves in the last 60 days
- 3
- Strong buy: 0
- Buy: 2
- Hold: 10
- Sell: 3
- Strong sell: 2
- Strong buy
- 0
- Buy
- 2
- Hold
- 10
- Sell
- 3
- Strong sell
- 2
- August 24, 2026 · Morgan Stanley: Maintains rating (Underweight → Underweight)
- August 24, 2026 · Evercore ISI Group: Maintains rating (In-Line → In-Line)
- August 12, 2026 · Goldman Sachs: Maintains rating (Sell → Sell)
News and sentiment
Evidence
Sentiment
- Sentiment
- Constructive
- Mention volume
- High
- Normalized volume
- 99%
News
Sources (1)
- HP Likely To Report Lower Q3 Earnings; These Most Accurate Analysts Revise Forecasts Ahead Of Earnings Call (opens in a new tab) — Benzinga
Technicals
Evidence
- Price when the context was analyzed
- 29.58
- Average true range (ATR)
- 4%
- Distance to 52-week high
- -2.0%
- 14-day change (14d)
- +1.8%
- 30-day change (32d)
- +14.8%
- 30-day relative strength
- +11.2%
- SPY change (32d)
- +3.6%
- Nearest support
- 29.54
- Distance to nearest support
- 0.1%
- Nearest resistance
- 29.78
- Distance to nearest resistance
- 0.7%
- Volume accumulation ratio (14d / 46d)
- 0.83
- Mid: 29.54 (0.1% away, 0.03 ATR, 11 touches)
- Minor: 29.33 (0.8% away, 0.21 ATR, 8 touches)
- Mid: 29.14 (1.5% away, 0.37 ATR, 28 touches)
- Mid: 29.78 (0.7% away, 0.18 ATR, 11 touches)
- Mid: 30.06 (1.6% away, 0.41 ATR, 10 touches)
- Mid: 30.33 (2.5% away, 0.64 ATR, 6 touches)
Trends
Evidence
- Average earnings surprise
- +6.6%
- May 27, 2026: actual EPS 0.86 vs estimate 0.72 (surprise +20.3%)
- February 24, 2026: actual EPS 0.81 vs estimate 0.77 (surprise +5.6%)
- November 25, 2025: actual EPS 0.93 vs estimate 0.92 (surprise +0.8%)
- August 27, 2025: actual EPS 0.75 vs estimate 0.75 (surprise -0.0%)
Expected move
- Implied move
- +8.0%
- Source
- Options chain
Reactions over its last 20 earnings
- Median move
- 3.4%
- 75th percentile move
- 7.1%
- 90th percentile move
- 10.2%
- Up / down moves
- 8 / 12
- Average up move
- +5.3%
- Average down move
- -4.6%
Monitoring and close
What HP Inc. reported
- Status
- Finished
| Actual EPS | 0.83 |
|---|---|
| EPS estimate | 0.69 |
| EPS surprise | +20.3% |
| Revenue | $15,677 million |
| Revenue estimate | $14,343 million |
| Revenue surprise | +9.3% |
HP beat Q3 expectations and raised its annual guidance, but shares fell 10.5%, reflecting pessimism among investors.
Sources (3)
- HP shares tumble despite earnings beat, raised guidance (opens in a new tab) — Proactive
- HP beat expectations in Q3: adjusted EPS of $0.83 versus $0.69 estimated, and revenue of $15.677 billion versus $14.343 billion estimated. — Benzinga
- HP Sees AI PCs as Enterprise Cost, Security and Growth Catalyst (opens in a new tab) — MarketBeat
Pre-market second reading after the results
- Verdict
- Beat expectations
Heading into the open, results beat expectations on both earnings and revenue, and the price is indicating -12.4% pre-market, a move 4x the stock's usual reaction (about 3%). The figures confirm the pessimistic scenario. In the 753 similar cases in our market history, the close held that direction 96% of the time.
How the stock reacted
- Outcome
- Accurate
- Consolidated
- -2.9%
- Max favorable move (MFE)
- 14.4%
- Max adverse move (MAE)
- 5.8%