Hewlett-Packard Earnings May Save The Day For Tech (HPQ, DELL, AAPL)

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE:HPQ) may have saved the day for technology.  The green machine posted $0.71 Non-GAAP EPS versus $0.66 estimates and $25.4 Billion revenues versus $24.1 Billion estimates.  Its 9% non-GAAP margin was also a tad above plan.  The guidance is the saving grace though that may tame some of the bears. GUIDANCE: $0.80 to $0.81 versus $0.78 estimates and Revenues forecast at $27.0 to $27.2 Billion vs $26.45 Billion estimates. 

This was key and if you review the Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) situation today where we gave both sides of the argument if we enter a beer and hamburger economy, this should alleviate other current concerns on whether or not tech is a haven.  H-P put Fiscal 2007 non-GAAP diluted EPS in the range of $2.86 to $2.87 and it estimates Fiscal 2007 revenues at $103.0 billion to $103.2 billion, although the next quarter is also fiscal year-end.

Here are the individual metrics:

• Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue grew 29% year over year to $8.9 billion, with unit shipments up 33% on a year-over-year basis. These results bring PSG’s year-to-date revenue growth to nearly $5 billion.
• Imaging and Printing Group (IPG) revenue grew 8% year over year to $6.8 billion. On a year-over-year basis, supplies revenue grew 9%, commercial hardware revenue grew 6% and consumer hardware revenue grew 10%.
• Enterprise Storage and Servers (ESS) reported revenue of $4.5 billion, up 10% over the prior-year period.
• HP Services (HPS) revenue increased 8% year over year to $4.2 billion.
• HP Software revenue grew 74% over the prior-year period to $554 million, led by strong growth from the businesses acquired in HP’s purchase of Mercury Interactive.
• HP Financial Services reported revenue of $582 million, an increase of 12% year over year.
• ITS INTERNALS: HP generated $1.9 billion in cash flow from operations. Inventory ended at $8.0 billion, up $728 million sequentially and up $542 million year over year. Accounts receivable increased $268 million sequentially and increased $2.2 billion over the prior-year period to $11.8 billion. Accounts payable increased $168 million sequentially and $978 million over the prior-year period to $11.7 billion. HP’s dividend payment of $0.08 per share in the second quarter resulted in cash usage of $209 million. HP utilized $2.5 billion of cash during the third quarter to repurchase approximately 55 million shares of common stock from the open market. HP exited the quarter with $12.5 billion in gross cash, which includes cash and cash equivalents of $12.5 billion, short-term investments of $40 million, and certain long-term investments of $23 million.

Shares closed down marginally after the huge market recovery today, but shares are up over 2% in after-hours trading.  Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) shares are up less than 1% in after-hours trading at $117.30 and Dell (NASDAQ:DELL) shares are down 1% in after-hours since releasing its "independent investigation completed with restatements coming" and found that internal wrong doing was uncovered (story pending now).

Jon Ogg can be reached at [email protected]; he is the publisher of the 24/7 Wall St. Special Situation Investing Newsletter and does not own securities in the companies he covers.