HP (HPQ)
Forward P/E is 11.06x against a peer median of 13.19x, a ratio of 0.84x, with a trailing P/E of 12.51x and a price/sales ratio of 0.51x, so the shares are also cheap on earnings already delivered, not only on forecasts. Latest-quarter revenue growth was +12.5% year over year (PRIMARY/EDGAR), positive and not collapsing, though well below the cluster median of +48.5%. Two cautions keep this from being a strong call: the PEG ratio of 3.87 is the highest in this batch, meaning expected earnings growth is low, and a low multiple on a mature PC and printer business can reflect peak-cycle earnings rather than mispricing. Delivered demand check: the cluster's median revenue growth was +48.5% year over year — demand rising.
What would change this label: Move to FAIRLY PRICED if the forward P/E rises above about 11.9x (0.90x the current peer median of 13.19x) without earnings growth improving, or if revenue growth turns negative year over year. Move to OVERVALUED if the forward P/E expands above about 15.2x (1.15x the peer median) while the PEG stays above 3, showing the market is paying a premium for growth that is not expected.
HP makes laptops and printers, a mature business that does not grow quickly. Even so, sales rose about 13% over the past year and the shares cost only about 11 times expected profits, less than similar hardware companies at about 13 times. The catch is that profits are not expected to grow much from here, so this is a modest discount rather than an obvious bargain.
Both lines start at 100 on 2020-09-01. Over the full window HP returned +74.35% and the S&P 500 +118.28% (price returns; dividends not reinvested). Worst peak-to-trough fall for HP: -54.9% (2022-06-01 to 2026-02-24). Source: Nasdaq official daily history.
What the label rests on
Forward P/E is 11.06x against a peer median of 13.19x, a ratio of 0.84x, with a trailing P/E of 12.51x and a price/sales ratio of 0.51x, so the shares are also cheap on earnings already delivered, not only on forecasts. Latest-quarter revenue growth was +12.5% year over year (PRIMARY/EDGAR), positive and not collapsing, though well below the cluster median of +48.5%. Two cautions keep this from being a strong call: the PEG ratio of 3.87 is the highest in this batch, meaning expected earnings growth is low, and a low multiple on a mature PC and printer business can reflect peak-cycle earnings rather than mispricing. Delivered demand check: the cluster's median revenue growth was +48.5% year over year — demand rising. The company’s forward P/E is 11.1× against a peer median of 13.2×. Its own history: UNVERIFIED — no sourced range available. Sector demand read: Delivered demand check: the Technology hardware & storage group's median latest-quarter revenue growth was +48.5% year over year (SEC filings) — demand rising. Latest-quarter sales growth was +12.5% versus a year earlier (SEC filings).
| Company | Price (Oct 28, 2026) | Forward P/E | Trailing P/E |
|---|---|---|---|
| HP (HPQ) | $32.85 | 11.1× | 12.5× |
| SMCI | $35.29 | 7.5× | 10.8× |
| NTAP | $227.04 | 22.8× | 32.0× |
| P | $138.14 | 42.9× | 191.3× |
| HPE | $60.47 | 13.1× | 30.8× |
| WDC | $380.88 | 13.2× | 14.8× |
| Peer median | 13.2× |
Multiples: stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026. Peer set chosen by sector; the median is the middle value of the set. The label and its numbers were recorded in the programme’s label registry on Oct 28, 2026 and will be scored at 6 and 12 months.
Sales, profit and cash
This company does not report a gross-profit line in its SEC facts (normal for banks, payment networks and some health insurers), so profit is shown as net income instead — gross margin is marked UNVERIFIED-absent rather than estimated.
Free cash flow = cash from operations minus spending on plant and equipment, both from the company’s SEC cash-flow statement. Gaps are quarters where that spending line is not separately tagged in the filings — shown as gaps, never estimated.
| Quarter | Sales | Gross margin | Net income | EPS (GAAP, diluted) | Free cash flow |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Q/E Jul 2026 2026-07-31 | $15.7B | 18.8% | $661M | 0.71 | $1.5B |
| Q/E Apr 2026 2026-04-30 | $14.4B | 20.9% | $450M | 0.49 | $756M |
| Q/E Jan 2026 2026-01-31 | $14.4B | 19.6% | $545M | 0.58 | $150M |
| Q/E Oct 2025 2025-10-31 | $14.6B | 20.2% | $795M | — | $1.4B |
| Q/E Jul 2025 2025-07-31 | $13.9B | 20.5% | $763M | 0.80 | $1.4B |
| Q/E Apr 2025 2025-04-30 | $13.2B | 20.7% | $406M | 0.42 | $-145M |
| Q/E Jan 2025 2025-01-31 | $13.5B | 21.0% | $565M | 0.59 | $72M |
| Q/E Oct 2024 2024-10-31 | $14.1B | 21.4% | $906M | — | $1.5B |
| Q/E Jul 2024 2024-07-31 | $13.5B | 21.5% | $640M | 0.65 | $1.3B |
| Q/E Apr 2024 2024-04-30 | $12.8B | 23.6% | $607M | 0.61 | $462M |
| Q/E Jan 2024 2024-01-31 | $13.2B | 21.9% | $622M | 0.62 | $-37M |
| Q/E Oct 2023 2023-10-31 | $13.8B | 21.6% | $974M | — | $1.8B |
The last twelve reported quarters. Full 24-quarter history sits in the data pack behind this page. A dash means the figure is not tagged as a standalone quarter in the company’s SEC facts (the usual case is the fourth quarter, which many companies only report inside the full-year filing) — it is missing, not zero.
Earnings: getting better or worse?
Each box is one quarter’s earnings per share (EPS). Green means EPS was higher than the same quarter a year earlier; red means lower; a dash means the figure is not tagged in the filings.
Basis: GAAP diluted EPS from SEC company facts, compared with the same quarter a year earlier.
Key facts
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Company (legal name in filings) | HP INC |
| Chief executive | Bruce Broussard (source: https://www.hp.com/us-en/newsroom/press-releases/2026/hp-inc-announces-hp-leadership-transition.html) |
| Sector | Technology — Technology Hardware, Storage & Peripherals — sells personal computers and printers |
| Share price (Oct 28, 2026) | $32.85 |
| Market value (market cap) | $30.3B — share price times shares outstanding of 901,790,969 (SEC filings; SEC EDGAR dei EntityCommonStockSharesOutstanding (latest)) |
| Sales, last twelve months | $59.2B |
| Net income, last twelve months | $2.5B |
| Free cash flow, last twelve months | $3.9B |
| Latest reported quarter | Q/E Jul 2026 (of 24 quarters in the data pack) |
| Six-year price return vs S&P 500 | +74.35% vs +118.28% |
| Worst peak-to-trough fall | -54.9% (2022-06-01 to 2026-02-24) |
What we could not verify
- Gross profit / gross margin: not tagged as a standalone line in this company's EDGAR company facts (common for banks, payment networks and some healthcare payers) — shown as UNVERIFIED-absent; the page charts revenue and net income instead.
- TTM GAAP diluted EPS could not be summed from company facts because at least one of the last four quarters (typically Q4) has no standalone tagged EPS; trailing P/E is therefore taken from the labelled secondary source in valuation_label.md.
- Own-history P/E range not yet compiled for this company in the Phase 1 batch run; the label rests on peer-median, growth and PEG evidence.
- Leadership transition from the brief's fetch notes: Bruce Broussard is Interim CEO, appointed effective Feb 3, 2026 per HP's official release, after Enrique Lores stepped down — the CEO in the brief is an interim appointment.
- Peer set in the brief is wide (forward P/E from 7.53x for SMCI to 42.88x for P, whose trailing P/E is 191.3x), so the peer median of 13.19x is a broad hardware benchmark rather than a close PC/printer comparison.
- Guidance record (each quarter scored against the guidance the company gave the quarter before) is not yet compiled for this company — it is a Phase 2 layer. The earnings strip below therefore uses reported EPS versus a year earlier, which is fully sourced from filings.
The IT factor — the most exciting thing the market is overlooking — is not assessed on an X-Ray page. It belongs to the Deep Dive (Phase 2), where it gets the evidence standard it needs. Leadership-era scoring (the six years split by chief executive) is likewise a Phase 2 layer; this page names the current chief executive only, from a sourced profile.
Sources
- SEC EDGAR submissions — Filing index; company legal name.
https://data.sec.gov/submissions/CIK0000047217.json - SEC EDGAR company facts — Quarterly financial spine: revenue, gross profit, net income, GAAP diluted EPS, operating cash flow, PP&E capex, buybacks, dividends, diluted shares.
https://data.sec.gov/api/xbrl/companyfacts/CIK0000047217.json - Nasdaq official daily history — Daily closes for the company; SPY (assetclass=etf) saved as raw/nasdaq_spy_raw.json over identical dates.
https://api.nasdaq.com/api/quote/HPQ/historical?assetclass=stocks - Valuation multiples and peer figures — stockanalysis.com (SECONDARY, S&P Global data), fetched Oct 28, 2026; see valuation_label.md in the data pack.
Conventions: earliest-filed value per period, as first reported; cash-flow years-to-date differenced quarter by quarter; EPS never differenced; free cash flow = operating cash flow minus plant-and-equipment spending. This page is a dated snapshot — updates are new versions, never silent edits.