So, here's a classic Wall Street story: a company beats earnings, and its stock goes down. It happened to HP Inc. (HPQ) on Wednesday. The tech hardware giant reported first-quarter numbers that were better than expected, but a warning from its finance chief about rising costs sent shares tumbling to a fresh 52-week low.

Let's break it down. For the quarter, HP posted adjusted earnings per share of 81 cents, beating the analyst consensus of 77 cents. Sales rose 6.9% year-over-year to $14.4 billion, also topping the expected $13.9 billion. Not a bad start to the fiscal year.

But the market is a forward-looking machine, and what it heard next it didn't like. While HP reaffirmed its full-year adjusted EPS guidance of $2.90 to $3.20 (the Street was looking for $3.01), CFO Karen Parkhill added a crucial caveat.

"With just one quarter behind us in a dynamic environment marked by increasing memory costs, we are holding our outlook for the year yet currently anticipate results to be closer to the low end of our range," Parkhill said. "We are well practiced at managing through headwinds and remain focused on executing our mitigation plans."

In other words: We hit our numbers this quarter, but it's getting more expensive to make our products, so the full year might not be as rosy as we hoped. That's the kind of talk that makes investors nervous, especially when the stock is already trading near multi-year lows.

The Good, The Bad, and The Printing Business

Digging into the segments shows a tale of two divisions. The Personal Systems business, which includes PCs and laptops, was the star. Revenue there surged 11% year-over-year to $10.3 billion, with both consumer and commercial sales posting healthy growth. Total units shipped were up 12%.

On the other side, the Printing segment continues to be a drag. Revenue fell 2% to $4.2 billion, with declines in both consumer and commercial printing. Total hardware units shipped dropped 6%. It's the ongoing story of a business in structural decline, even as the company tries to pivot to more services and supplies.

Financially, the company's adjusted operating margin contracted slightly by 40 basis points to 6.9%. It generated $383 million in operating cash flow and $175 million in free cash flow. HP also returned cash to shareholders, paying a 30-cent dividend and buying back $325 million worth of its own stock. It ended the quarter with a cash pile of $3.2 billion.

The Road Ahead Looks Bumpy

For the current quarter (Q2 of fiscal 2026), HP provided guidance that was essentially in-line with expectations. It expects adjusted EPS between 70 and 76 cents, compared to the Wall Street estimate of 74 cents.

But the real story is the full-year warning. When a CFO says results will be at the "low end" of the range, it's often Wall Street code for "we might miss the low end if things get worse." The mention of "increasing memory costs" is a specific, tangible problem that analysts can model, and it rarely leads to upward revisions.

The market's reaction was swift and severe. HP shares were down 4.62% at $17.36 in premarket trading, hitting that new 52-week low. It's a stark reminder that in today's market, good past performance is nice, but a cloudy future is what really moves the needle—downward.