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HP (HPQ) Gains But Lags Market: What You Should Know

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HP (HPQ - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $18.30, moving +0.16% from the previous trading session. This move lagged the S&P 500's daily gain of 0.8%. Meanwhile, the Dow gained 0.82%, and the Nasdaq, a tech-heavy index, added 1.14%.

Coming into today, shares of the personal computer and printer maker had lost 9.55% in the past month. In that same time, the Computer and Technology sector lost 5.07%, while the S&P 500 lost 3.2%.

HPQ will be looking to display strength as it nears its next earnings release, which is expected to be May 23, 2019. The company is expected to report EPS of $0.51, up 6.25% from the prior-year quarter. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $14.06 billion, up 0.43% from the year-ago period.

Looking at the full year, our Zacks Consensus Estimates suggest analysts are expecting earnings of $2.14 per share and revenue of $58.94 billion. These totals would mark changes of +5.94% and +0.8%, respectively, from last year.

Investors should also note any recent changes to analyst estimates for HPQ. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. As a result, we can interpret positive estimate revisions as a good sign for the company's business outlook.

Our research shows that these estimate changes are directly correlated with near-term stock prices. We developed the Zacks Rank to capitalize on this phenomenon. Our system takes these estimate changes into account and delivers a clear, actionable rating model.

Ranging from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), the Zacks Rank system has a proven, outside-audited track record of outperformance, with #1 stocks returning an average of +25% annually since 1988. Within the past 30 days, our consensus EPS projection remained stagnant. HPQ is currently sporting a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold).

Valuation is also important, so investors should note that HPQ has a Forward P/E ratio of 8.55 right now. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 12.17, so we one might conclude that HPQ is trading at a discount comparatively.

It is also worth noting that HPQ currently has a PEG ratio of 3.02. This popular metric is similar to the widely-known P/E ratio, with the difference being that the PEG ratio also takes into account the company's expected earnings growth rate. The Computer - Mini computers was holding an average PEG ratio of 2.3 at yesterday's closing price.

The Computer - Mini computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 108, putting it in the top 43% of all 250+ industries.

The Zacks Industry Rank gauges the strength of our industry groups by measuring the average Zacks Rank of the individual stocks within the groups. Our research shows that the top 50% rated industries outperform the bottom half by a factor of 2 to 1.

Make sure to utilize Zacks. Com to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and more, in the coming trading sessions.


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