Hewlett-Packard today reported that for the first quarter of 2011, the company brought in revenue of $32.3 billion. That's an increase of 4 percent from a year ago, but slightly below what Wall Street was hoping to hear. This was a bit upsetting for Wall Street analysts who were expecting revenue between $32.75 billion and $33.59 billion, and earnings per share between $1.26 and $1.32.
HP CEO Leo Apotheker released an upbeat statement on the earnings report: "I'm pleased with our EPS and margin expansion during the quarter. Going forward, we have the opportunity to further capitalize on our customers' demands for higher value-added solutions...HP has a powerful portfolio, including exciting, recently announced cloud and connectivity offerings. We are focused on leveraging these strengths to extend our leadership and accelerate growth."
During a conference call with reporters this afternoon, HP executives gave a couple reasons for HP's miss: the company's enterprise business didn't resign or land the same number of big enterprise contracts it expected, and the consumer PC market grew slower than previously anticipated.
"We had good growth in commercial sectors and we gained share in the U.S. enterprise sector however, it was offset by continued softness in the consumer PC market," Apotheker said.
As a result, HP today revised its full year 2011 revenue forecast slightly downward from $131.5 billion to $133.5 billion to between $130 billion and $131.5 billion. CFO Cathie Lesjak explained, "We continue to remain cautious about the consumer spending environment, particularly with PCs." The enterprise business, she added, will "grow behind yearly seasonality." In other words, it will be slower than HP anticipated several months ago.
Read more: http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20034982-260.html#ixzz1EjH7NVKT
Joe Carretta
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