New York, February 25, 2026, 05:29 (EST) — Premarket
- HPQ slid 4.7% in early premarket action after HP signaled its full-year profit will likely land close to the bottom of its projected range.
- Company warned of rising memory expenses and predicted PC unit shipments would fall by double digits this year.
- HP topped quarterly forecasts, though the company flagged tariffs and rising component costs as clouding its outlook.
HP Inc dropped 4.7% to $17.34 before the bell on Wednesday, deepening its slide after signaling a more guarded outlook for profits. The PC-and-printer maker’s stock had finished Tuesday at $18.20.
HP warned Tuesday that memory chip price volatility may stick around into next year, and the company is bracing for PC unit shipments to drop by double digits in fiscal 2026. Shares slid roughly 6% in after-hours trading. The tech giant stuck with its annual adjusted profit target—$2.90 to $3.20 a share, excluding certain items—but signaled results are likely to hit the lower end of that range. AI-powered PCs, able to run some artificial intelligence features locally, accounted for over 35% of HP’s shipments this quarter. HP is also hiking prices and tweaking its supply chain as it assesses the hit from new U.S. import tariffs. Interim CEO Bruce Broussard told analysts the company is “engaging the administration on these matters and others.” Reuters
HP posted stronger headline figures. For the fiscal first quarter ended Jan. 31, revenue was up 6.9% to $14.4 billion, with adjusted earnings at 81 cents per share. That’s according to the company’s statement. Personal Systems brought in $10.3 billion, up 11%, but Printing slipped 2% to $4.2 billion. Looking ahead, HP guided for adjusted earnings of 70 to 76 cents a share for the second quarter, sticking with its full-year outlook. Chief financial officer Karen Parkhill flagged that “results to be closer to the low end of our range.” HP Investor Relations
HPQ slipped 0.8% to finish at $18.20 on Tuesday, holding within a range of $18.00 to $18.81 through the day, Investing.com data show. Volume reached roughly 27.6 million shares.
HP is turning to time-tested moves—raising prices, swapping in cheaper suppliers, and, as the Wall Street Journal notes, trimming memory options on certain products—to counter the jump in component costs. It all makes sense in spreadsheets. Still, convincing customers to buy stripped-down machines isn’t easy when many are already holding off on upgrades.
Here’s the risk: memory costs outpace HP’s ability to raise prices or shift suppliers, and margins take the hit. Suddenly, it’s all about the “low end.”
Tariffs are another factor that can turn on a dime. Just a brief spell of uncertainty over rates or enforcement tends to accelerate orders, only to create a vacuum in demand afterward.
The opening bell will give traders their first real sense of how deep this early selling goes—especially if it spills into other PC makers and hardware stocks that have warned about component inflation.
Investors are left eyeing whether AI-capable PCs can actually push up average selling prices, even as total shipments slip. The mix shift paints a promising picture on a slide deck, though it still faces the test of a sluggish buying season.
HP’s fiscal second-quarter results, covering the stretch through April 30, will be the next key test. The company faces pressure to prove that tweaks to pricing and the supply chain are blunting the impact of higher memory costs — and that the projected annual profit range remains intact.
