Hewlett-Packard reported solid financial results for its fiscal first quarter, driven by growth in PCs and enterprise hardware. The results prompted HP to raise its forecast for the year ahead.
Revenue for the quarter, which ended Jan. 31, was US$28.5 billion, up 13 per cent from a year earlier, HP announced Tuesday. Pro forma net income was US$2.3 billion, or US$0.86 per share, up from US$1.8 billion, or US$0.65 per share, a year earlier.
The figures beat the expectations of financial analysts, who had forecast revenue of US$27.6 billion and pro forma earnings per share of US$0.81, according to Thomson Financial. The pro forma figure excludes one-time items that slightly inflated the results. Using generally accepted accounting principles, HP’s profit was US$2.1 billion, or US$0.80 per share.
HP’s Personal Systems Group, which produces its laptop and desktop PCs, grew its revenue 24 per cent from the same period a year earlier, to US$10.8 billion, with unit shipments up 27 per cent. Notebook sales climbed fastest, up 37 per cent, while desktop sales climbed 15 per cent.
The division had already been doing well. HP extended its lead over Dell in PC sales last year, according to figures from Gartner. HP ended the year with 18.2 per cent of the market, compared with 14.3 per cent for Dell. The PC market overall grew 13.4 per cent.
HP may find it hard to sustain that growth rate, in part because it has to make comparisons with increasingly successful quarters in the year before, CEO Mark Hurd said on a conference call. Still, Hurd said, “when you look at 24 per cent growth, I think that’s pretty darned strong.”
HP’s imaging and printing group performed slightly less well, with revenue climbing 4 per cent to US$7.3 billion. Printer unit sales declined by 1 per cent from a year earlier, thanks to weakness in the consumer market. Revenue from supplies, which includes HP’s profitable ink business, climbed 6 per cent, however.
Revenue from the servers and storage group climbed 9 per cent to US$4.8 billion. Sales of blades and industry-standard servers were strong, while HP’s PA-RISC and Alpha chip businesses continued to shrink. Services revenue climbed 11 per cent year-over-year to US$4.4 billion, while software sales climbed 11 per cent to US$666 million, HP said.