Hewlett-Packard’s financial recovery is still rocky, though there are some encouraging signs.
The company reported Wednesday that sales during the quarter that ended July 31 hit US$27.6 billion, up one per cent from a year ago, SiliconValley.com reported. But its profit was just under US$1 billion, compared with about US$1.4 billion for the same period 12 months ago.
“I continue to be very encouraged by the progress we’re making,” CEO Meg Whitman said during a conference call with analysts. But she noted that some aspects of HP’s business — notably printing and software, which saw a decline in sales — “still face some challenges.”
Here’s a break-down of the numbers:
- Personal Systems revenue (including PCs) was up 12 per cent year over year. Commercial revenue increased 14 per cent and consumer revenue increased 8 per cent. Total units sold were up 13 per cent with desktops units up 9 per cent and notebooks units up 18 per cent
- Printing revenue was down 4 per cent year over year. Total hardware units were down 5 per cent with commercial hardware units down 2 per cent and consumer hardware units down 6 per cent. Supplies revenue was down 5 per cent.
- Enterprise Group (including servers and storage) revenue was up 2 per cent year over year. Industry Standard Servers revenue was up 9 per cent, Storage revenue was down 4 per cent, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 18 per ent, Networking revenue was up 4 per cent and Technology Services revenue was down 3 per cent;
- Enterprise Services revenue was down 6 per cent year over year. Application and Business Services revenue was down 4 per cent and Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing revenue declined 8 per cent.
- Software revenue was down 5 per cent year over year. License revenue was down 16 per cent, support revenue was flat, professional services revenue was down 3 per cent and software-as-a-service (SaaS) revenue was up 8 per cent.
- HP Financial Services revenue was down 3 per cent year over year with a 1 per cent increase in net portfolio assets and a 14% increase in financing volume. The business delivered an operating margin of 9.2 per cemt