Notebooks, Blade Servers Propel Solid Quarter For HP

Strong growth in sales of notebook computers, blade servers, and printers helped Hewlett-Packard post increased revenues and earnings in its latest quarterly financial report Wednesday.

"HP delivered another quarter of solid growth," said CEO and president Mark Hurd during a teleconference. "We are demonstrating that HP is a great company that can continue perform better across the board."

For HP's fiscal third quarter ended July 31, the company reported earnings of $1.38 billion, or 52 cents per share, on revenue of $21.9 billion. Those results compared to earnings of $73 million, or 3 cents a share, on revenue of $20.8 billion in the same quarter a year ago, and earnings of $1.9 billion, or 68 cents per share, on revenue of $22.6 billion in the second quarter of 2006.

Hurd said sales of many HP products in the third quarter reached "their highest levels in years despite this being typically a slow seasonal quarter."

The Personal Systems Group reported revenue growth of 8% from the same quarter a year ago, including a 14% increase in notebook revenue and a 5% increase in desktop revenue.

Enterprise Storage and Servers reported growth of 3% from a year ago, including a 6% revenue increase for industry-standard servers and a 37% revenue increase for blade servers. HP in June introduced its new .c-Class Bladesystem blade server platform.

The Imaging and Printing Group reported revenue growth of 5% compared to a year ago, including a 15% increase in printer unit shipments.

HP estimates its fourth quarter revenue will be about $24.1 billion, with earnings per share in the range of 57 cents to 59 cents.