Profits drop even as HP reports 4Q Revenue strong

There was a pulling back of annual profits for Hewlett-Packard with a drop in earnings even though the company saw a boost with strong sales in the fourth quarter.
Ability of the company to perform even in a difficult environment is proved by this said HP chairman and CEO Mark Hurd on Monday to a group of reporters from the industry. He went on to say that he was very pleased with the performance of HP and also said that they have gained share in all segments.
Fourth fiscal quarter ending October 31st saw HP reporting revenue of $33.6 billion. This is nine percent higher than last year’s same quarter which was only $28.3 billion. Annual sales too increased to $118.4 billion, up by 13 percent compared to the year 2007. The entire year saw HP earning $8.3 billion which is fifteen percent higher than last year’s earning of $7.3 billion which includes results from EDS which became a part of HP in the month of August.
There was a ten percent growth in sales of the Personal Systems Group of HP. Sales of the PC unit went up by 19 percent. Growth in revenue is due to strong sales of the notebook PC which compared to last year is up by 21 percent even as sales figures show sale of desktop PC falling by two percent.
A fall of one percent was seen in the Imaging and Printing section of HP while an increase of 9 percent was seen from last year in the supplies revenue. Last year saw the shipment of printers falling by 8 percent.