HP Quarterly Revenue Misses Expectation

Hewlett-Packard Co. (HP) on Tuesday posted a quarterly revenue that was lower than expected due to lackluster sales of consumer personal computers.

For its 2011 first fiscal quarter ended on Jan. 31, HP reported revenue of 32.3 billion U.S. dollars, up 4 percent from the year- ago period.

According to Thomson Reuters, analysts on average expected 32. 96 billion dollars.

HP said that net earnings reached 2.6 billion dollars in the quarter, representing an increase of 16 percent over the same period a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company earned 1.36 dollars a share, up 27 percent year-on-year and better than analysts' estimate of 1.29 dollars.

HP noted that it saw balanced growth in the quarter across all regions, with accelerated growth in Brazil, Russia, India and China, or the BRIC countries.

"Results were largely driven by momentum in the commercial sector as businesses continued to spend on technology. HP experienced uneven consumer performance across its geographies and product categories during the quarter," the company said in a press release.

The world's largest personal computer maker reported that revenue of its personal systems group dropped one percent in the quarter, with revenue in consumer clients down 12 percent while revenue in commercial clients grew 11 percent.