Guidance and Segment Performance Weigh on HP

By Chris Lange Updated Apr 27, 10:43PM EDT · Published Feb 24, 4:44PM EST

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After the market closed Tuesday, Hewlett-Packard Co. (NYSE: HPQ) announced its fiscal first-quarter financial results as $0.92 in earnings per share (EPS) on $26.8 billion in revenue. That came over the top of Thomson Reuters consensus estimates of $0.91 EPS, but a little below an expected $27.34 billion in revenue. The first quarter from the previous year had $0.90 in EPS and $28.15 billion in revenue.

The company gave guidance for the fiscal second quarter. Hewlett-Packard expects EPS to be in a range of $0.84 to $0.88. There is expected to be a $0.09 per share drop due to currency exchange rates in the second quarter. There are consensus estimates of $0.96 in EPS and $26.78 billion in revenue for the fiscal second quarter.

Hewlett-Packard generated $744 million in cash flow from operations in the first quarter, down 75% from the prior-year period. Inventory ended the quarter at $6.6 billion. HP also utilized $1.6 billion of cash during the quarter to repurchase approximately 41.1 million shares of common stock in the open market. The company exited the quarter with $13.3 billion in gross cash.

The first-quarter segment results were:

Personal Systems revenue was flat from the previous year at $8.54 billion, with an operating margin of 3.7%.
Printing revenue was down 5% year over year to $5.54 billion, with a 19.2% operating margin.
Enterprise Group revenue was flat at $6.98 billion, with a 15.6% operating margin.
Enterprise Services revenue was down 11% at $4.99 billion, with a 3.0% operating margin.
Software revenue was down 5% at $871 million, with an operating margin of 18.0%.
HP Financial Services revenue was down 8% at $803 million, with an operating margin of 11.2%.

Meg Whitman, chairman, president and chief executive of HP, said:

With the first quarter of fiscal 2015 now behind us, the HP turnaround remains on track. We grew operating profit margins across all of our major business segments, increased investment in innovation, and executed well across key areas of our portfolio and in our separation activities. Our progress continues as we head into Q2.

Hewlett-Packard shares closed Tuesday up 0.8% at $38.49. Following the release of the earnings report, shares were down more than 5% at $36.40 in after-hours trading. The stock has a consensus analyst price target of $42.00 and a 52-week trading range of $28.75 to $41.10.

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About the Author Chris Lange →

Chris Lange is a writer for 24/7 Wall St., based in Houston. He has covered financial markets over the past decade with an emphasis on healthcare, tech, and IPOs. During this time, he has published thousands of articles with insightful analysis across these complex fields. Currently, Lange's focus is on military and geopolitical topics.

Lange's work has been quoted or mentioned in Forbes, The New York Times, Business Insider, USA Today, MSN, Yahoo, The Verge, Vice, The Intelligencer, Quartz, Nasdaq, The Motley Fool, Fox Business, International Business Times, The Street, Seeking Alpha, Barron’s, Benzinga, and many other major publications.

A graduate of Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas, Lange majored in business with a particular focus on investments. He has previous experience in the banking industry and startups.