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HP (HPQ) Rises But Trails Market: What Investors Should Know

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HP (HPQ - Free Report) closed the most recent trading day at $27.66, moving +1.06% from the previous trading session. The stock trailed the S&P 500, which registered a daily gain of 1.07%. On the other hand, the Dow registered a gain of 1.12%, and the technology-centric Nasdaq increased by 1.37%.

The stock of personal computer and printer maker has fallen by 2.81% in the past month, lagging the Computer and Technology sector's gain of 2.68% and the S&P 500's gain of 1.08%.

Market participants will be closely following the financial results of HP in its upcoming release. The company is predicted to post an EPS of $0.91, indicating a 2.15% decline compared to the equivalent quarter last year. Meanwhile, the Zacks Consensus Estimate for revenue is projecting net sales of $14.46 billion, up 2.91% from the year-ago period.

In terms of the entire fiscal year, the Zacks Consensus Estimates predict earnings of $3.1 per share and a revenue of $54.99 billion, indicating changes of -8.28% and +2.67%, respectively, from the former year.

It's also important for investors to be aware of any recent modifications to analyst estimates for HP. These revisions typically reflect the latest short-term business trends, which can change frequently. With this in mind, we can consider positive estimate revisions a sign of optimism about the business outlook.

Our research demonstrates that these adjustments in estimates directly associate with imminent stock price performance. 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.

The Zacks Rank system, stretching from #1 (Strong Buy) to #5 (Strong Sell), has a noteworthy track record of outperforming, validated by third-party audits, with stocks rated #1 producing an average annual return of +25% since the year 1988. Over the past month, the Zacks Consensus EPS estimate has remained steady. HP is holding a Zacks Rank of #3 (Hold) right now.

From a valuation perspective, HP is currently exchanging hands at a Forward P/E ratio of 8.82. Its industry sports an average Forward P/E of 13.92, so one might conclude that HP is trading at a discount comparatively.

We can also see that HPQ currently has a PEG ratio of 2.2. 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. By the end of yesterday's trading, the Computer - Micro Computers industry had an average PEG ratio of 1.57.

The Computer - Micro Computers industry is part of the Computer and Technology sector. This group has a Zacks Industry Rank of 19, putting it in the top 8% of all 250+ industries.

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

Be sure to follow all of these stock-moving metrics, and many more, on Zacks.com.


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