HP: Business is just swell

Hewlett-Packard upped its second quarter outlook Tuesday after an internal email about its financial results was leaked to a "single outside party."

HP said in a statement:

"The company determined that the most prudent course of action under these unusual circumstances was to publicly release updated revenue and earnings guidance for that quarter prior to the market's open Tuesday."

The good news for HP is that its second quarter is strong to continue a string of good quarters. For the second quarter ending April 30, HP said expects to report revenue of about $25.5 billion to $25.55 billion and earnings per share of 69 cents to 70 cents a share excluding items. Net earnings per share are expected to be 64 cents a share to 65 cents a share. According to Thomson Financial Wall Street was expecting earnings of 65 cents a share.

HP (see all ZDNet resources on HP) said the results were driven by its personal systems group and server businesses.

The company had previously projected earnings of 63 cents a share to 64 cents a share excluding items on revenue of about $24.5 billion. Net earnings per share was projected to be 57 cents a share to 58 cents a share.

For the third quarter, HP said it was projecting earnings of 63 cents to 65 cents a share excluding items on revenue of $23.7 billion to $23.9 billion. Net earnings per share is expected to be 59 cents a share to 61 cents a share. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 61 cents a share.

HP plans to report earnings May 16, but who knows what executives will talk about since today's release covers most of the bases.