UPDATED 06:45 EDT / NOVEMBER 26 2014

HP’s profits decline but analysts remain optimistic over split

medium_2283119275Just one month after announcing its plans to split into two new companies, Hewlett-Packard Co. has reported a 2% decline in its Q4 revenues, missing analysts estimates and causing its share price to plummet.

HP posted revenues of $28.4 billion for the quarter ending October 31, down from $29.1 billion the year before, and slightly off of Wall Street’s earlier estimates of $28.7 billion. Operating profits were also down by about six percent to $1.3 billion, compared to $1.4 billion in the previous year.

HP’s disappointing results come just over a month after the company said it would split itself into two publicly-traded entities. HP Inc. will keep selling its computers and printer hardware, while Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will incorporate the firm’s cloud, financial, software and storage segments, and be led by current CEO Meg Whitman.

Not surprisingly Whitman put a positive spin on the results, claiming they were evidence of the firm’s stability.

“I’m excited to say that HP’s turnaround continues on track,” Whitman said. ”In FY14, we stabilized our revenue trajectory, strengthened our operations, showed strong financial discipline, and once again made innovation the cornerstone of our company. Our product roadmaps are the best they’ve been in years and our partners and customers believe in us. There’s still a lot left to do, but our efforts to date, combined with the separation we announced in October, sets the stage for accelerated progress in FY15 and beyond.”

The brightest spot for HP was its personal systems division – yep, the one that sells PCs. Despite the ongoing global slump in PC sales, the group posted $8.9 billion in revenues, up four percent year on year. Meanwhile the division’s pre-tax earnings shot up by 34 percent.

That’s good news for HP Inc., as it looks to go it alone in a declining market. Had the company spun off in the last quarter, it would have made for an extremely impressive debut. But things aren’t nearly so rosey at Whitman’s new company.

The soon-to-be inaugrated Hewlett-Packard Enterprise will comprise HP’s Enterprise Group, Enterprise Services, Software, and HP Financial Services divsions, and these groups saw their combined revenues shrink compared to 2013, both for Q4 and the year as a whole. Lumped together, these divisons raked in $14.8 billion in revenues for the fourth quarter and $57.6 billion for the entire year, which is down 4.7 percent and 3.6 percent year-over-year. Had Hewlett-Packard Enterprise already split, it wouldn’t have been the most impressive start to life.

But that doesn’t mean we should write off Hewlett-Packard Enterprise just yet. Cassandra Mooshian, analyst at Technology Business Research Inc., told SiliconANGLE she was optimistic about the company’s fortunes moving forward.

“HP will be even better positioned to execute on its cloud initiatives in 2016 as HPE takes shape, permitting Helion solutions to be seen as a technology and platform-agnostic cloud provider,” said Mosshian. “We expect HPE will look for strategic acquisition opportunities in cloud in 2016, particularly around open-source, to complement its portfolio while breaking ties from the PPS group will enable HP to partner with cloud vendors that previously would have had overlapping portfolios, particularly in the devices arena.”

photo credit: ViaMoi via photopin cc

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