HP forecasts strong fourth-quarter profit on price hikes, US tariff refunds

It also raised its annual forecast for adjusted earnings per share to a range of $3.19 to $3.29, which includes a $0.19 favorable impact from estimated tariff refunds for the entire year. The laptop maker had earlier forecast annual adjusted EPS to be $2.90 to $3.10.

U.S. President Donald Trump's administration has refunded about $100 billion from tariffs it collected before the U.S. Supreme Court struck down those duties, a court filing showed earlier this month.

HP, like peers Dell Technologies, Apple and China's Lenovo Group, raised prices for its devices as a global shortage of memory chips drove up costs.

Rival Lenovo reported a 43% jump in quarterly revenue earlier in August, benefiting from an AI hardware boom and price hikes due to the memory chip shortage.

HP forecast current-quarter profit above Wall Street estimates on Wednesday, a sign that estimated tariff refunds along with price increases on premium and AI-powered personal computers will offset memory chip expenses.

The company expects fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share between 69 cents and 79 cents, above analysts' average estimate of 67 cents, according to data compiled by LSEG. The forecast includes an 8-cent boost from estimated tariff refunds.

HP reported third-quarter revenue of $15.7 billion, up 12.5% from a year earlier and exceeding estimates of $14.38 billion, helped by strong demand for AI-optimized PCs.

"In the third quarter, we increased both total sales and share in premium products and continued to attract new customers with innovations in WXP, Print, workstations and AI PCs," HP's interim CEO, Bruce Broussard, said.