By Josh Beckerman
Hewlett-Packard Co. on Thursday reported a 7% drop in revenue
for the April quarter, hurt by declines in all its major segments,
and issued downbeat earnings guidance for the current quarter.
Still, shares of H-P--off 16% in 2015--rose 1.5% to $34.35 in
after-hours trading as the company's per-share earnings in the
first quarter were better-than-expected and the company maintained
its year outlook.
The company also named the chief financial officers for the two
companies to be created by its previously announced split, which
H-P says remains on track to occur later this year.
In October, Hewlett-Packard unveiled plans to separate its
personal-computer and printer businesses, to be called HP Inc.,
from its corporate hardware and services operations, which has been
billed as the growth engine and will be known as Hewlett-Packard
Enterprise.
The company said Thursday that current Chief Financial Officer
Cathie Lesjak will be the financial chief of HP Inc. Tim
Stonesifer, meanwhile, will be the chief financial officer of
Hewlett-Packard Enterprise. He is currently the chief financial
officer of the company's enterprise group.
For the second quarter ended April 30, H-P's earnings fell to $1
billion, or 55 cents a share, from $1.3 billion, or 66 cents a
share. Excluding certain items, the company's per-share earnings
were 87 cents, below the 88 cents from a year ago but above the
average analyst estimate of 85 cents.
The company's revenue of $25.5 billion fell below the $25.635
billion projected by Wall Street analysts. The company had warned
that the strong dollar was hurting results. On a constant-currency
basis, the decline was 2%, H-P said.
H-P expects per-share earnings excluding items of 83 cents to 87
cents for the current quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters
had projected 87 cents.
For the year ending in October, H-P maintained its estimate for
earnings excluding items of $3.53 to $3.73 a share.
"Despite some tough challenges, we executed well across many
parts of our portfolio, sustained our commitment to innovation, and
delivered the results we said we would. HP is becoming stronger as
we head into the second half of our fiscal year and separation in
November," the company said.
H-P posted a 5% revenue decline at its personal systems segment
and a 7% decrease at the printing segment.
Enterprise group revenue fell 1%, while H-P reported a 16%
decline at enterprise services. Meanwhile, software revenue fell
8%, and financial services revenue dropped 7%.
H-P has undergone a multiyear restructuring in an effort to stem
sales declines. The company has laid off tens of thousands of
employees and cut other costs to support its bottom line.
In addition to the separation, the company's other moves have
included the roughly $2.7 billion purchase of wireless-networking
company Aruba Networks Inc., announced in March and completed in
May. The deal expands H-P's mobile capabilities.
H-P last month said it was selling its Snapfish photo-storage
business to District Photo, in line with efforts to "focus the
organization."
Earlier Thursday, H-P said Tsinghua Holdings, which is
affiliated with China's Tsinghua University, will buy 51% of a
newly created entity housing H-P's H3C Technologies Co. networking
operation together with its China-based server, data-storage and
technology-services businesses. A Tsinghua Holdings unit will pay
about $2.3 billion for the stake.
In March, H-P said it was increasing its quarterly dividend by
10%.
Write to Josh Beckerman at josh.beckerman@wsj.com
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