The short interest in Hewlett-Packard fell 12 million shares in February. And, based on HP’s wonderful quarter, they should have been right to get out of the stock.
But, Wall St. moved that stock against them, dropping it on HP’s earnings report.
Hewlett-Packard did not have a stellar year in server sales in 2006, according to Gartner Group. And, the market does not think the company’s future is particularly rosy. MarketWatch quoted one analyst from ThinkEquity as saying: "We believe H-P will face tougher competition going forward as competitors fight to regain" share of key market segments."
The brutal reality of the market, especially in tech stocks, is that no amount of good news is enough. HP’s stock was up more than 20% over the last six months, until it announced earnings.
Some shorts thought the company would do well. And it did. But not well enough.
Douglas A. McIntyre can be reached at [email protected]. He does not own securities in companies that he writes about.
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