Shares in HP Inc. fell more than 9% in late trading today after a third quarter in which the company shipped far fewer personal computers than a year earlier, even though revenue and earnings landed ahead of analyst expectations.

For the quarter that ended on July 31, HP reported adjusted earnings of 83 cents per share, up from 75 cents in the same quarter last year, on revenue of $15.68 billion, up 12.5% year-over-year. Analysts were expecting 69 cents per share on revenue of $14.58 billion. On an unadjusted basis, diluted earnings fell to 71 cents from 80 cents and net earnings dropped to $661 million from $763 million. Tariff refunds added 11 cents to both earnings figures.

Personal Systems shipments fell 16% in the quarter, with consumer units down 19% and commercial units down 14%. Revenue in the segment went the other way, rising 18%, to $11.8 billion, thanks to higher selling prices, at a 4.6% operating margin. HP has been pushing through price increases across its device lineup to cover a global shortage of memory chips, and Reuters reported that Dell Technologies Inc., Apple Inc. and Lenovo Group Ltd. have also raised prices.

Printing revenue fell 2%, to $3.9 billion, down 4% in constant currency. Supplies revenue was down 3% and hardware units fell 7%. Operating margin in the segment was 18.1%.

HP refreshed its collaboration hardware during the quarter. At InfoComm in June the company introduced Poly Studio Room Compute, a pair of conference room machines running Intel Corp.’s third-generation Core Ultra processors. The Teams-certified Studio 5 starts at $2,499 and the Zoom-certified Studio 7 at $3,699, with both hitting resellers in July. The Poly Focus 6 headset line, priced from $379.95, went on sale the same month. A programmable Collaboration Keyboard follows in September at $59.99.

Chief Financial Officer Karen Parkhill described a record third quarter for revenue with earnings “above the top of our guidance range,” and said HP is building on that momentum to blunt near-term cost pressure. Interim Chief Executive Bruce Broussard pointed in the company’s release to gains in premium products and to new customers won with workstations and AI PCs.

HP raised its outlook for the year. Fourth-quarter adjusted earnings are forecast at 69 to 79 cents per share, ahead of the 67 cents analysts were expecting, with eight cents of the range attributed to estimated tariff refunds. The full-year adjusted range was lifted to $3.19 to $3.29 from the $2.90 to $3.10 HP gave in May, against a consensus of $3.04. About 19 cents of the annual figure is tariff refund money. Free cash flow guidance for the year also moved up, to between $3 billion and $3.2 billion.

Operating cash flow in the quarter was $1.7 billion and free cash flow was $1.6 billion. HP returned $600 million to shareholders, paying a dividend of 30 cents per share at a cost of $274 million and spending $300 million to repurchase about 12.2 million shares. Gross cash stood at $4.2 billion at quarter end.

Broussard has been running the company on an interim basis since Feb. 3, when Enrique Lores left to take the chief executive job at PayPal Holdings Inc. No permanent successor has been named.

Photo: HP