Dell, HP and Lenovo post mixed results
TECHNOLOGY companies delivered mixed results on Wall Street yesterday, as computing heavyweights Hewlett-Packard, Dell and Lenovo posted large profits but missed some forecasts.
Hewlett-Packard’s quarterly profit climbed 6.1 per cent on higher global sales and growth in the company’s core consumer market.
The world’s biggest PC producer announced $1.77bn (£1.14bn) in pre-tax gains, up from $1.67bn a year earlier. Revenue climbed 11 per cent to $30.73bn, though restructuring and acquisition costs hit overall figures.
Dell said it expected a continued pick up in demand for PCs from corporate customers for the next several quarters, as revenue rose 22 per cent to $15.5bn.
It beat Wall Street’s estimate of $15.2bn, thanks to strength in sales of servers and networking products as large companies upgraded equipment after years of austerity.
The world’s third biggest computer maker reported net income in the quarter of $545m, up from $472m in the same period last year.
It increased its income growth forecasts from 18 to 23 per cent, though shares dropped in
late trading as the figures were less spectacular than investors had hoped.
Meanwhile, Lenovo said it was banking on fresh demand from corporates and rapid expansion in emerging markets to fuel growth, as it unveiled a third consecutive quarterly profit.
Lenovo posted a pre-tax profit of $54.86m on the three months to July, better than the $16m loss seen a year ago, but slightly below expectations for a $57.1m profit.
The firm has been trying to return to its roots as an emerging markets specialist after it struggled to integrate overseas assets it acquired when it bought IBM’s laptop business in 2005.