Investing.com — stock slid 8.3% in after-hours trading on Wednesday after the company reported fiscal third-quarter 2026 results that handily beat analyst expectations, with the selloff widely attributed to profit-taking following a substantial pre-earnings rally. The company posted adjusted earnings per share of $0.83, well above the $0.66 consensus estimate, while revenue came in at $15.7 billion — up 12.5% year-over-year and ahead of the roughly $14.34–$14.38 billion Wall Street had anticipated.
Investors appeared to scrutinize the quality of the earnings beat, as the quarter included an $0.11 per-share favorable impact from tariff refunds — a factor some may view as a temporary rather than structural boost. Fourth-quarter guidance of $0.69–$0.79 in adjusted EPS, while above the $0.67 consensus, also embedded an estimated $0.08 contribution from tariff refunds, prompting questions about the durability of the profit outlook. Adding to the cautious tone, pre-earnings options activity had shown a heavily bearish skew, with put volume running nearly four times call volume, signaling that a meaningful portion of the market had hedged against a post-earnings pullback.
The broader U.S. equity market provided little cover for the decline, with the S&P 500 edging up 0.1%, the Dow Jones gaining 0.3%, and the Nasdaq rising 0.2% on the day, underscoring that the after-hours pressure on HPQ was entirely company-specific. HP’s stock had climbed sharply in the weeks prior, touching a 52-week high of $32.19 in mid-August before pulling back, meaning the shares entered the earnings report at an elevated level relative to analyst price targets.
Taken together, a strong but tariff-aided earnings beat, a forward guidance picture clouded by one-time refund tailwinds, and a stock that had already priced in significant optimism combined to trigger a classic “sell the news” reaction, pushing HPQ to $27.98 in after-hours trading despite the company’s operationally solid quarter.
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