The maker of expensive printer ink, HP saw its shares rise more than three percent after hours, amid better-than-expected quarterly results boosted by “pockets of growth” in the PC market.
The enterprise technology company posted adjusted earnings of 40 cents per share, excluding items, on revenues of $12.39 billion in the second fiscal quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected earnings of 39 cents per share on revenues of $11.93 billion.
The company called it a “breakthrough quarter,” as both the personal systems and print businesses both grew for the first time since 2010. Revenue was up seven percent from a year ago, while adjusted earnings fell two percent from the year-ago period.
CEO Dion Weisler said the company was staying ahead of the competition by mapping out the hot spots for PC growth.
“The real trick in this business is to segment the market, segment again and when you’ve done that do it one more time. Figure out where the pockets of growth are going to be, where the heat map is going to take you. We’ve been looking at areas of premium and gaming – very attractive parts of the market as services,” he said.
All is not that great though as Dell has been seeing prices have been rising for certain components, and there has been increased pressure from newer competition like Huawei in China. But Weisler said the company is experienced with managing all that.
“I think about all competition a lot. I do not get distracted by it. I think we have been very clear on how we can add value to our customers and we are executing on that strategy and it’s working for us. …. There has been a lot of players in this market for a long time. We will compete against them as we do all of our competitors and that’s by playing our own game.”
