Hewlett-Packard Co. Monday said it expects to beat its own earlier earnings and revenue estimates for its first fiscal quarter which ended Thursday.
HP didn’t give a dollar or per-share figure for the earnings and revenue surprise. In November, the company said it expected first-quarter revenue to be lower than the fourth-quarter results due to normal seasonal effects, with gross margins similar to the fourth quarter.
Citing strength in consumer technology spending, HP said that revenue increased moderately beyond expectations in the PC, imaging and printing businesses. HP also improved gross margins for those businesses, as well as its services business, the company said.
The earnings surprise isn’t exactly a return to boom times for the company.
The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of US$10.9 billion, an 18 percent decline year-over-year, according to U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings. HP’s fourth-quarter net earnings were down to $97 million from $922 million in the same quarter of 2000 — a decline of 89 percent. Per-share net earnings fell from $0.45 per share to $0.05 per share.
According to HP’s annual report filed Thursday, the company reported earnings of $141 million, or $0.07 per share, on revenue of $12.4 billion for the first quarter of 2001, accounting for a $537 million write-off for bad investments, restructuring costs and other charges. In 2000, it reported first quarter earnings of $0.38 per share on revenue of $11.7 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Financial/First Call predicted HP would earn $0.16 a share for the first quarter in their consensus estimate.
HP reports first-quarter financial results after the New York financial markets close on Feb. 13, and the company plans to hold a conference call that afternoon.
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