HP Inc. (HPQ), an information technology company, has gained an increase of 5.21% in aftermarket trading session and is trading at $30.08 at the time of the writing. The announcement by the company to raise the annual dividend is the prime mover behind this gain. On Wednesday, HPQ stock closed the day at $28.95 after steadily declining 0.945 during the mid-day session.
HPQ reiterated fiscal 2021 financial outlook
On Wednesday, at the Securities Analyst Meeting, HPQ reiterated its fiscal 2021 financial outlook and provided details on its strategy and opportunities for long term growth. Besides, the company also provided the fiscal 2022 financial outlook. The company estimated that for fiscal 2022, the GAAP diluted net EPS could range between $3.86 to $4.06 while the non-GAAP diluted EPS was estimated to range between $4.07 to $4.27. The company estimated the free cash flow to be 44.5 billion for fiscal 2022. The company indicated that it expects to return at least 100% of the cash flow through dividends and through share repurchases. The Board of Directors of the company had approved an increase to the planned annual dividend amount to $1.00 per share. That reflected the 29% increase from the previous dividend. Marie Myers, Chief Financial Officer of HP, said that the company is committed to returning capital to the shareholders while also investing in attractive opportunities.
Q3 2021 financial highlights
On 26th August, HPQ reported the financial results for the third quarter of the fiscal year 2021 which ended on 31st July. The company generated net revenue of $15.28 billion during the quarter against $14.29 billion for the same quarter of 2020. The total costs and expenses bore by the company during the period were $13.90 billion against $13.51 billion for the same period of 2020. The company earned $1.38 billion from the operations during the quarter against $779 million for the same period of 2020. The net earnings for the three month period were $1.10 billion against $734 million for the same period of 2020. The net earnings per basic and diluted share for the three month period were $0.94 and $0.92 respectively against $0.52 for the same period of 2020. The company had cash and cash equivalents of $3.43 billion on 31st July. The total current assets in the possession of the company at the time were $20.60 billion while the total current liabilities were $27.66 billion.
What’s next for HPQ?
Statistics reveal a stable picture for HPQ. During the last three months, HPQ has increased a mere 2.84%, thanks to a strong quarterly performance. Analysts believe that with the subsiding effects of a pandemic on all the industries, especially IT related sector, HP has the tendency to further boost its business profile in future to come.
