Hewlett-Packard fails to meet estimates
Profit for the quarter ending in January will be 83 cents to 86c a share, excluding some items, the company said in a statement. The average estimate of analysts surveyed by Bloomberg was for $1.11 a share.
Hewlett-Packard is suffering as some consumers shun personal computers and businesses curtail spending on technology services. Apotheker was replaced by Whitman on September 22 after slashing forecasts three times in less than a year and jarring investors with a decision to explore spinning off the PC unit.
“People are looking for signs of stabilisation even in their largest businesses and some plans to return these businesses to growth,” said Chris Whitmore, an analyst at Deutsche Bank in San Francisco who has a “sell” rating on the shares.
The company’s August 18 announcement that it would buy software maker Autonomy Corp. for $10.3 billion is adding to Hewlett-Packard’s debt, Whitmore said.
Whitman is working to integrate Autonomy and on October 27 said she’ll keep the PC business in house. Now, she is resetting Wall Street’s expectations for next year.
Profit excluding certain items for fiscal 2012, which began November 1, will be at least $4 a share, missing the average forecast for profit of $4.58. Hewlett-Packard fell $1.13, or 4%, to $26.86 at 4pm in New York. The shares have lost 36% this year.
Profit excluding some items for the fiscal fourth quarter, which ended October 31, was $1.17 a share, and sales fell to $32.1 billion. Analysts had expected $1.13 in profit on sales of $32.1 billion.
Like its competitor Dell Inc., Hewlett-Packard is coping with flooding in Thailand that’s constrained the world’s supply of hard disk drives used in PCs.
Whitman, former CEO of EBay, has begun reversing strategies pursued by Apotheker, including abandoning the PC spinoff plan. She also shares management responsibilities with executive chairman Ray Lane.
* Bloomberg
