Very Mixed H-P Earnings Data (HPQ)

Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) is out with its quarterly earnings report and earnings were $0.92 EPS on $30 billion in sales. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $0.87 EPS on $30.71 billion in sales.  Of the main units: Services grew 1% to $8.6 billion, Enterprise storage and servers was down 10% to $5.02 billion, printing group was down 7% to $6.26 billion, Personal Systems was down 15% to $8.87 billion; and software grew 30%.

H-P generated $1.2 billion in cash flow from operations in the first quarter. Inventory ended the quarter at $7.3 billion, with days of inventory up 3 days year over year to 28 days. The company spent $780 million of cash during the quarter to repurchase approximately 29 million shares. HP exited the quarter with about $8.2 billion in cash.

For the second quarter HP sees non-GAAP earnings of $0.88 to $0.91 versus estimates for the coming quarter of $0.95 EPS on $30.41 billion in sales.  For 2012, H-P maintained its prior outlook of at least $4.00 in earnings per shares.

H-P closed down 1.5% at $28.94 and shares are initially down another 1.6% at $28.39.

As we noted in our preview today, today is expected to be all about the turnaround plan rather than earnings last quarter or even next quarter.  Until Meg Whitman answers questions from analysts and the media, we are considering this one unfinished business.

JON C. OGG