14 DAY TRIAL // Hewlett-Packard officially announced on Monday having recorded $33.6 billion in revenue during the fourth quarter of 2008, registering a 19 percent growth compared to a year ago, or 16 percent after adjusting for currency effects. For the quarter, HP marked $2.1 billion profits, translated into 84 cents per share, slightly down from the $2.2 billion registered a year before, but a gain from the 81 cents per share.
The PC vendor pre-released its financial results last week, marking some of the rare good numbers registered by the PC industry currently affected by the economic downturn. CEO Mark Hurd stated on a conference call on Monday that he had always believed in the company's capability to surpass the global financial crisis. According to Hurd, HP will “gain share, expand earnings, and emerge from the current environment in a meaningfully stronger position,” although “the macroeconomic environment will remain challenging".
HP's rival Dell also revealed its earnings last week, posting profit, but the number one PC maker said that, although it had always been trying to find ways to save money, it would not do so by cutting jobs. “We'll get through this period without losing any muscle in the organization,” Hurd said. He also stated that the company is expected to continue to maintain its market share positions in all its businesses even through the current economic turmoil.
HP registered revenue growth 10 percent to $11.2 billion for its core PC business, while shipments went up 19 percent. The business unit's success was mainly based on notebooks, as the revenue for the quarter went up 21 percent. At the same time, desktop revenue diminished by 2 percent. According to Hurd, the forecast for the PC industry would be rather “challenging,” but even if the company was bracing itself, there would not be any “extraordinary” change in prices in the near future.
HP posted a 1 percent drop in revenue for its printer business, attributing it to the fact that the company's largest clients delay purchases of new equipment. “People are holding onto existing products longer. We're fine with that,” Hurd said. “Supplies revenue is good (up 9 percent year over year)... people are still printing.”
During the quarter, HP also managed to finish the integration of its EDS buy, which pushed the HP Services revenue up 99 percent to $8.6 billion. The EDS acquisition accounts for $3.9 billion of that, which means that revenue grew 10 percent if EDS is eliminated from the equation. In the after-hours trading on Monday, HP's shares downgraded 0.87 percent to $35.39.