HP reported better-than-expected fiscal third quarter earnings on Thursday, but the stock dipped in extended trading.
Here are the key numbers:
- Earnings: 52 cents per share, excluding certain items, vs. 51 cents per share as expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.
- Revenue: $14.59 billion, vs. $14.27 billion as expected by analysts, according to Thomson Reuters.
Revenue in the period rose 12 percent from a year earlier, HP said in a statement.
The stock fell 1.1 percent to $24.63 after the report and later fell more than 4 percent below closing price. HP shares are up 17 percent this year.
The company’s biggest business segment, Personal Systems, generated $9.4 billion in revenue, ahead of the $9.03 billion average estimate, according to FactSet. That unit includes consumer and commercial PCs, notebooks, desktops and workstations.
The Printing segment, which includes consumer and commercial printers and other products, produced $5.19 billion in revenue, just above the $5.11 billion consensus estimate.
HP’s guidance met expectations. The company said it expects to post 52 cents to 55 cents in earnings per share in the fiscal fourth quarter and $2.00 to $2.03 for the full year, excluding certain items. Analysts were expecting 54 cents for the fourth quarter and $2.00 for the year, according to Thomson Reuters.
“We sort of still predict declining units in traditional PCs, with flattish revenue, so our ASPs [average selling prices] are growing,” HP CEO Dion Weisler said in an interview with CNBC on Thursday.
As a seller of devices running Microsoft’s Windows 10 operating system, HP is one of many companies that have stood to gain as people upgrade from older versions of Windows. “I would say this Windows 7 sunset and migration to Windows 10 is providing some stimulus to the market, but it’s not quite as spiky as previous operating system transitions,” Weisler said. Many companies started their upgrades earlier than in the past, he said in the CNBC interview.
During the quarter, the company named former Proteus Digital Health executive Steve Fieler as its new finance chief, replacing Cathie Lesjak, who became interim operating chief.
Earlier this month HP announced that it was acquiring Apogee, an office equipment dealer based in the United Kingdom, for around $500 million.
“With Apogee we’re going to gain access to new profit goals by expanding our ability to deliver value added services and accelerate the deployment of our technology into this growing contractual … market, especially amongst SMBs [small and medium-sized businesses],” Weisler said on a conference call with analysts following the earnings release. Contractional arrangements are more long-term in nature than transactional work, Weisler said on the call.
Fieler said on the call he believes HP’s revenue will be flat or up slightly in the next fiscal year.
“Profitable growth will continue to be our priority as we move forward” Weisler said on the call.
— CNBC’s Josh Lipton contributed to this report.
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