Hewlett-Packard Q1 Earnings Beat Estimates

reported better-than-expected earnings for the fiscal second quarter on Thursday. The Palo Alto, California-based company posted quarterly net income of $1 billion, or $0.55 per share, compared to $1.27 billion, or $0.66 per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding certain items, Hewlett-Packard's share earnings declined to $0.87 per share from $0.88 per share. Its revenue slipped to 25.45 billion from $27.31 billion. However, analysts were expecting earnings of $0.86 per share on revenue of $25.63 billion. The average estimate among 48 Estimize users was for earnings of $0.87 per share and revenue of $25.90 billion. Personal Systems revenue declined 5 percent year-over-year in the quarter, while Printing revenue slipped 7 percent. Enterprise Group revenue declined 1 percent, while Enterprise Services revenue dropped 16 percent. Software revenue dipped 8 percent year-over-year in the quarter, while HP Financial Services revenue tumbled 7 percent. During the quarter, Hewlett-Packard returned $950 million to shareholders through share repurchases and dividends. In the quarter, the company generated $1.5 billion in cash flow from operations, a 51 percent decline versus the year-ago period. The company ended the quarter with $15.1 billion in gross cash. "I'm pleased with where we ended the quarter, the continued success of our turnaround, and the progress we're making on separation," said Meg Whitman, chairman, president and chief executive officer, HP. "Despite some tough challenges, we executed well across many parts of our portfolio, sustained our commitment to innovation, and delivered the results we said we would. HP is becoming stronger as we head into the second half of our fiscal year and separation in November." For the current quarter, H-P projects adjusted earnings of $0.83 to $0.87 per share, versus analysts' estimates of $0.87 per share. For fiscal 2015, the company projects adjusted earnings of $3.53 to $3.73 per share. Hewlett-Packard shares gained 1.27 percent to $34.26 in the after-hours trading session.