HP Q1 revenue slips 5pc to US$26.7bn – projects weak outlook for Q2

25 Feb 2015

Tech giant HP, which is about to split into two Fortune 500 companies, revealed first-quarter revenues of US$26.8bn, down 5pc on last year. Shares fell 7pc overnight as the market responded to a weak second-quarter outlook.

For the first quarter, HP reported net earnings were down 4pc to US$1.4bn and cash flow from operations dropped 75pc to US$744m.

However, the company still managed to return US$1.9bn to shareholders in the form of share repurchases.

Looking ahead to the second quarter, HP gave a weak outlook and blamed currency challenges for predicting earnings per share in the range of US$0.84 to US$0.88.

“With the first quarter of fiscal 2015 now behind us, the HP turnaround remains on track,” said Meg Whitman, chief executive officer at HP.

“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.”

However, Wall Street might not agree with Whitman’s optimistic assessment. The weak outlook caused shares in HP to fall 7pc in after-hours trading.

In October, HP revealed it plans to split into two companies: Hewlett-Packard Enterprise, which will focus on servers and software, and HP Inc, a PC and printing company.

John Kennedy is a journalist who served as editor of Silicon Republic for 17 years

editorial@siliconrepublic.com