HP likely to post weak Q3 earnings on Aug 22

HP Inc. (NYSE: HPQ), which was formerly known as Hewlett-Packard, is scheduled to report its earnings results for the third quarter on Thursday after the market closes. The PC maker’s results will be benefited by strong growth across key geographies in the PC shipment as well as its enhancement in 3D printing business capabilities.

However, the company continues to experience challenges that may impact its business and results. This relates to dynamic market trends, including estimated declining PC Client markets and home printing markets as well as the competitive landscape. It also includes business model changes and go-to-market execution in an evolving distribution and reseller landscape.

In Personal Systems, the company’s strategic focus is on profitable growth through hypermarket segmentation. In Printing, the company’s strategic growth focus is on shift to contractual solutions and Graphics, as well as expanding its footprint in the 3D printing marketplace.

The company’s net revenue, gross margin, and profit vary among its diverse products and services, customer groups and geographic markets. The gross margins and profitability will be dependent on the product, service, customer, and geographic mix that are reflected in net revenue, which in turn depends on the overall demand for its products and services.

The top line will be impacted by a material adverse effect on demand that is caused by the delays or reductions in hardware and related services spending by the company’s customers. The company could face competition, lawsuits, investigations, increases in components and manufacturing costs, higher tariffs, component supply disruptions, and other risks impacting its businesses. This will hurt the bottom line results for the third quarter.

Analysts expect the company’s earnings to increase by 5.80% to $0.55 per share and revenue will rise by 0.20% to $14.62 billion for the third quarter. In comparison, during the previous year quarter, HP posted a profit of $0.52 per share on revenue of $14.59 billion. The company surprised investors by beating analysts’ expectations thrice in the past four quarters.

Read: Applied Materials Q3 earnings review

For the second quarter, HP reported a 26% dip in earnings due to higher costs and expenses as well as broadly unchanged revenues. The company continued to strike the right balance between driving results today and investing in innovation to deliver long-term financial performance.

For the third quarter, HP expects unadjusted earnings in the range of $0.49 to $0.52 per share and adjusted earnings of $0.53 to $0.56 per share. For fiscal 2019, the company predicts unadjusted earnings in the range of $2.04 to $2.11 per share and adjusted earnings in the range of $2.14 to $2.21 per share.

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