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Hewlett-Packard’s Q4 Profit Drops 91% (HPQ)

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Hewlett PackardHewlett-Packard Company (NYSE: HPQ), after market close on Monday, reported its fourth-quarter financial results, posting a 91% drop in profit.

Despite the sharp decline in profit, Meg Whitman, HP’s recently appointed CEO, tried to remain optimistic. Whitman said in an interview that HP has been through a lot and has got some rebuilding to do. She added that what HP has been through would have felled lesser companies.


HP, indeed, has been through a lot in the last one year. Leo Apotheker, from whom Whitman took over as CEO in September, wanted to transform HP’s business completely. Under Apotheker, HP acquired Autonomy, a British software company; dropped its tablet computer business; and announced plans to sell its personal computing business. All this while, HP shares tumbled as investors did not agree with Apotheker’s idea of transforming HP.

HP’s business has also suffered due to the global economic environment. Whitman expects HP to grow at GDP-type growth rates or maybe a little faster. She expects profitability to rise through superior management of HP’s internal assets.

For the fourth quarter, HP reported net income of $200 million, or $0.12 per share, down from $2.5 billion, or $1.10 per share reported for the same period in the previous year. During the fourth quarter, the company took $2.1 billion related to the closing of its Web OS mobile software business.

HP’s revenue for the quarter fell 3% on a year-over-year basis to $32.1 billion. The company’s revenue from its server business and notebook computers also fell during the fourth quarter. The company’s services business also barley grew in the fourth quarter.

Although HP’s profit for the quarter was better than what many analysts were expecting, the company’s shares fell in after-hours trading on the gloomy outlook for the company.

HP shares fell 2.27% to $26.25 in after-hours trading.

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edliston
Post Written By: Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing in his yacht.


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Ed Liston

Ed Liston is a senior contributing editor at TheStockMarketWatch.com. An active market watcher and investor, Ed guides an independent team of experienced analysts and writes for multiple stock trader publications. He is widely quoted in various financial publications on the Internet. When Ed is not writing about stocks, investing in stocks, talking about stocks, or otherwise doing something stock related, he likes to go sailing and fishing.

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