Monday November 24, 11:47 PM
Solid quarter for HP on strong laptop sales
NEW YORK (AFP) - Hewlett Packard (NYSE: HPQ - news) on Monday reported a solid fourth quarter on strong laptop sales, taking net profit for the full fiscal year to 8.3 billion dollars, an increase of 15 percent over the previous year.
The world's largest technology company reported net profit in the quarter which ended on October 31 of 2.1 billion dollars, down two percent on the same quarter the previous year.
Revenue for the fourth quarter rose 19 percent to 33.6 billion dollars taking revenue for the full 2008 fiscal year to 118.4 billion dollars, up 13 percent on the previous year.
Hewlett Packard, the world's second-largest personal computer manufacturer, announced last week that earnings per share were 1.03 dollars in the fourth quarter, higher than the 1.00 dollars expected by analysts.
Hewlett Packard said it expected earnings per share of between 93 and 95 cents during the current quarter, the first of the 2009 fiscal year, better than the 91 cents forecast by analysts.
"These results demonstrate our ability to execute in a challenging market," chairman and chief executive Mark Hurd said in a conference call with analysts. "I am confident in HP's ability to gain share, expand earnings, and emerge from the current environment as a stronger force in the marketplace."
Hewlett Packard said revenue grew 17 percent in the Americas in the fourth quarter, 22 percent in Europe, the Middle East and Africa and 14 percent in Asia Pacific to 14.0 billion dollars, 14.1 billion dollars and 5.5 billion dollars, respectively.
Hewlett Packard said revenue from laptop computers grew a healthy 21 percent in the fourth quarter while desktop revenue declined two percent.
Besides personal computers, the Palo Alto, California-based Hewlett Packard is a major provider of servers, printers, software and services.
It said revenue from the imaging and printing group declined one percent while revenue from storage and servers was also down one percent.
Services revenue jumped 99 percent to 8.6 billion dollars, led by 3.9 billion dollars in revenue resulting from Hewlett Packard's acquisition of computer services firm Electronic Data Systems (NYSE: EDS - news) .
In after-hours trading in New York, Hewlett Packard's share price was down 0.87 percent to 35.39 dollars at 2200 GMT.
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