HP revenues, profits jump

Despite grabbing nearly $2 billion more in revenues during the fourth quarter than it did a year ago, Hewlett-Packard Co. fell short of expectations for the fiscal quarter.

The company reported revenues of $11.8 billion and net income of $806 million, or 75 cents a share -- below analysts' expectations of 77 cents per share. Revenues in the year-earlier quarter were $10.1 billion and profits were $648 million, or 62 cents per share.

Analysts were anxiously awaiting HP's earnings, since the company is the first high-tech stock to report after the rockiness caused by the crash of Asian markets.

HP reported that revenues from the Asia Pacific, Canadian, and Latin American markets grew 22 percent to $2.6 billion during the quarter, although currency effects hurt revenue growth by about five percentage points.

HP CEO Lewis Platt said in a release that he was pleased with the overall results, although operating expenses grew faster than planned.

"We're especially pleased with the strong market response to our PC and server product lines, as well as with excellent growth in test and measurement and components," he said.

Doing particularly well were HP's Vectra and Pavilion PC lines. The company attributed the growth in the Pavilion line to the strength of the sub-$1,000 PC market, which has become a major factor in PC retailing.

HP said server sales were strong, and sales of high-end systems drove demand to the lower-end of the market. In the printer business, LaserJet revenues were essentially flat, although unit volume was up, and InkJet revenues were up "modestly."