HP Announces Strong Q4 Results

Technology company Hewlett Packard has today announced strong results for the fourth quarter off the back of improving sales and increasing demand for its laptop computers, which have had a significant effect on profits over the last three months for the US based firm.

Hewlett Packard, the world’s largest manufacturer of PC computers, including latpops, has enjoyed strong ongoing demand over the last quarter of its financial year to the end of October, which naturally has excluded the festive shopping season from its sales and figures. When amalgamated with potential sales over the coming weeks, the results undoubtedly seem significantly stronger.

Profits reported for the period were up from $1.7 billion to $2.2 billion over the quarter ended October, which the company reporting much of its growth coming from continued strong demand for its portable laptop models. The company also reported strength in its software services division, which enjoys a higher marginal profit figure that other divisions in the business.

The results were taken as a pleasant surprise by market analysts that had expected some lesser growth, whilst sales figures reflecting a year on increase of 15% up to $28.3 billion for the quarter.

Hewlett Packard has also today said that it fully intends to initiate a buy back of some $8 billion of issued stock in order to reign in some of the capital outlay and increase the potency of the rights attached to each share.

Additionally it is thought that the company views the value of its shares as unrepresentative of the value of its balance sheet, thus seeking to reacquire stock in order to prevent ‘cheap’ equity build ups by major shareholders.

Speaking today on the results executive Mark Hurd said that the company were delighted with the results, and that whilst it did not possess any significant exposure to the subprime sector it would nevertheless exercise caution in investment decisions over the short to medium term.

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