H-P's Earnings Top Views Despite Revenue Drop--Update

By Josh Beckerman 

Hewlett-Packard Co. reported a 7% drop in revenue for the April quarter, hurt by declines in all its major segments.

The company's revenue of $25.5 billion fell below the $25.635 billion projected by Wall Street analysts. The company had warned that the strong dollar was hurting results. On a constant-currency basis, the decline was 2%, H-P said.

For the second quarter ended April 30, H-P's earnings fell to $1 billion, or 55 cents a share, from $1.3 billion, or 66 cents a share. Excluding certain items, the company's per-share earnings were 87 cents, below the 88 cents from a year ago but above the average analyst estimate of 85 cents.

Hewlett-Packard in October unveiled plans to separate its personal-computer and printer businesses from its corporate hardware and services operations, which has been billed as the growth engine.

Thursday the company provided more details on this process, naming its chief financial officer, Cathie Lesjak, as the financial chief of HP Inc. Tim Stonesifer will be the chief financial officer of Hewlett Packard Enterprise. He is currently the chief financial officer of the company's enterprise group.

H-P expects earnings excluding items of 83 cents to 87 cents a share for the current quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters projected 87 cents.

For the year ending in October, H-P maintained its estimate for earnings excluding items of $3.53 to $3.73 a share.

Shares rose 1.9% to $34.46 in recent after-hours trading.

Write to Josh Beckerman at [e-mail]

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