Key Takeaways for HP Inc. Stock as of August 2026
- Record Beat: HP Inc. (HPQ) posted record Q3 revenue of $15,677.00M, up 12.53% YoY and 8.81% QoQ, while adjusted EPS of $0.83 beat Street estimates of $0.69 by 19.99%.
- Guidance Raised: Management lifted FY26 EPS guidance to $3.19-$3.29 from $2.90-$3.10, a range that bakes in ~$0.19 of tariff refund benefit, and raised FY26 free cash flow guidance to $3.0B-$3.2B.
- PC Margin Slide: Personal Systems revenue jumped 18% YoY to $11.8B on record unit mix, yet segment operating margin fell to just 4.6%, well below HP’s long-term range, as memory costs bit into profitability.
- Trough Call: CFO Karen Parkhill told analysts, “We said that we expected Q4 margins to be a low point last quarterly call. We continue to believe that. But we have high confidence that it will improve from there.”
HP Inc. stock enters its fiscal fourth quarter with a beat-and-raise quarter behind it and a margin recovery story still ahead of it. Grab the free tools long-term investors use to stress-test that story on TIKR for free →
HP Stock Posts a Record Q3, But the PC Margin Problem Hasn’t Gone Away
HP Inc. (HPQ) delivered $15,677.00 million in revenue for its fiscal third quarter, a record third quarter for the company and an increase of 12.53% year over year, easily clearing Street estimates of $14,426.76 million by 8.67%. Adjusted earnings per share came in at $0.83, up 10.67% from $0.75 a year earlier and 19.99% ahead of the $0.69 analysts expected. Net income of $772.00 million beat estimates of $609.98 million by 26.56%. On paper, this looks like a clean quarter. Underneath it, HP stock is wrestling with a cost problem that hasn’t been solved yet, only offset.
Personal Systems, HP’s PC and workstation segment, drove the headline. Revenue there hit $11.8 billion, up 18% year over year and the segment’s tenth straight quarter of growth, with commercial revenue up 22% and consumer up 10%. AI PCs made up 46% of the shipment mix in the quarter, tracking toward management’s 40% to 50% target for the fiscal year. But segment operating margin landed at just 4.6%, below HP’s long-term range and down from the prior year, as rising memory and storage costs outpaced the benefit of higher pricing. That tension between top-line strength and margin compression is the story of this print.
CFO Karen Parkhill addressed the margin question directly on the Q3 earnings call: “We said that we expected Q4 margins to be a low point last quarterly call. We continue to believe that. But we have high confidence that it will improve from there.” That confidence rests on contract repricing, product redesign, and a richer mix of premium and AI PC units, all of which management says take time to show up in the numbers.
Print told a steadier but weaker story, with revenue down 2% year over year as HP leaned into disciplined pricing over volume. Segment operating margin of 18.1% looked healthy, but it carried a one-time tariff refund that flattered the print, and HP’s $0.83 in adjusted EPS included $0.11 tied to that same refund. Strip it out, and HP still cleared the high end of its own guidance range, evidence that the underlying business, not just a government payout, drove the beat. HP also raised its full-year EPS guide to $3.19 to $3.29, up from $2.90 to $3.10, and lifted its free cash flow outlook to $3.0 billion to $3.2 billion after generating more than $2.5 billion in free cash flow through the first three quarters of the fiscal year. HP stock now carries a raised guide built partly on refunds that won’t repeat and partly on cost actions still working their way through the P&L.
Betting on HP stock into fiscal 2027 means betting that the second half of that equation shows up before the first half of it fades. See how TIKR’s free platform tracks HP’s margin trajectory heading into next year on TIKR for free →
TIKR’s $34 Target Prices HP Stock for a Modest Climb Through 2030
TIKR’s mid case model values HP Inc. at $34 by October 2030, implying a potential total return of 11% from the current price of $31, or 2.6% annualized over 4.2 years.
That annualized rate sits well below what most investors expect from a stock carrying real execution risk in its largest segment, positioning HP stock closer to a steady-compounder than a re-rating candidate over the model’s timeframe.
The model’s modest return profile lines up with a Personal Systems business generating record revenue but compressed margins, where the earnings power TIKR is pricing in depends on the same cost mitigation and premium mix shift management described on the call materializing on schedule.
HP stock’s path to that $34 target runs directly through the margin recovery CFO Karen Parkhill flagged for the back half of fiscal 2026 and into fiscal 2027.
The model’s return math leaves little room for a slower recovery than management projects. Check TIKR’s full return breakdown and forecast ranges on HP stock on TIKR for free →
Should You Invest in HP Inc.?
The only way to really know is to look at the numbers yourself. TIKR gives you free access to the same institutional-quality financial data that professional analysts use to answer exactly that question.
Pull up HP Inc. stock and you’ll see years of historical financials, what Wall Street analysts expect for revenue and earnings in the quarters ahead, how valuation multiples have moved over time, and whether price targets are trending up or down.
You can build a free watchlist to track HP Inc. alongside every other stock on your radar. No credit card required. Just the data you need to decide for yourself.
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Disclaimer:
Please note that the articles on TIKR are not intended to serve as investment or financial advice from TIKR or our content team, nor are they recommendations to buy or sell any stocks. We create our content based on TIKR Terminal’s investment data and analysts’ estimates. Our analysis might not include recent company news or important updates. TIKR has no position in any stocks mentioned. Thank you for reading, and happy investing!
