Shares of PC and Printer maker, HP Inc. (HPQ) went down by 2% on Thursday after Warren Buffet’s Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A and BRK.B) unloaded a bit of its stake. The filing reported Berkshire has sold its 4.5% or 5.5 million HP shares over a three-straight day, but still maintaining its position as a major shareholder at 11.68% from 1.2% before the sale.
The stake of 115.5 million shares left on Berkshire is currently valued at over $3.2 billion as HPQ closed at $27.82 a share. Earlier in April 2022, Berkshire had bought almost 110 million shares of HPQ, according to its SEC filing.
The selling by Berkshire happened after HP cut its 2023 profit forecast two weeks earlier in its 3Q2023 report. HP had warned about softening demand for its products. In recent years, HP has been shifting one of its revenue sources from selling printers to selling ink cartridges instead, causing some concerns from consumers as sometimes buying a whole new printer is more cost efficient but the business practice continues.
The current HPQ price is at around 2000 tech bubble, over five-times its price in 2002 bust, four-times 2012 low but still lower than $37 of October 2021 high and $32 of July 2023 high. HPQ currently has a P/E ratio of 12.6 and 4.15% net margin with over $27 billion market cap.