TacticScaleWhat HP Does & How It Makes Money (HPQ)
Updated October 2026 · reflects HP's latest reported financials
Maker of personal computers, printers and printing supplies. HP earns money by selling PCs, displays and printer hardware.
How HP makes money
HP earns money by selling PCs, displays and printer hardware. It also earns ongoing revenue from printing supplies such as ink and toner, and from support, deployment and extended-warranty services sold to consumers, small businesses, the public sector and enterprises.
What HP does
HP Inc. is one of two companies formed in October 2015 when Hewlett-Packard split up, and it kept the PC and printer businesses. It has three segments. Personal Systems sells commercial and consumer notebooks, desktops, workstations, thin clients, displays, point-of-sale systems and endpoint security, along with support, configuration and extended-warranty services. Printing sells home and office printers and supplies, plus graphics, 3D printing and personalization solutions for commercial and industrial customers. A small Corporate Investments segment funds new business ideas. HP sells to consumers, small and medium-sized businesses, the public sector and large enterprises in the US and other countries. Much of its revenue comes from hardware sales, and printing supplies add a recurring stream on top of that.
Products & services
- Commercial and consumer notebooks and desktops
- Workstations and thin clients
- Printers and printing supplies (ink and toner)
- 3D printing and industrial graphics solutions
- Retail point-of-sale systems
- Lifecycle services and extended warranties
What is HP worth?
On an owner-earnings DCF, HP's most-likely value is about $58 versus a recent price near $30 (93% below fair value). But TacticScale only calls a stock undervalued when the price sits below its conservative no-growth floor (~$42) with a margin of safety — so the honest verdict here is “Deeply discounted.” Fair value earns its keep only at the extremes, not in the wide middle.
On the financials alone, $30 is below even the no-growth floor ($42); the market's discount — expectations and sentiment beyond the numbers — is pricing in ≈ -3.6%/yr. A bargain only if that pessimism is overdone.
Analysis, not advice. Fair value is a margin-of-safety estimate from a deterministic owner-earnings DCF, not a price target or recommendation. See the full breakdown →
Related companies
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) · Dell Technologies (DELL) · PC Connection (CNXN) · Intel (INTC)