Hewlett-Packard Earnings And The Apple Problem

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Hewlett-Packard Earnings And The Apple ProblemHewlett-Packard Company (NYSE:HPQ) announced its earnings yesterday for the second quarter of 2012 beating analysts estimates. The company earned 98 cents per share on revenue of $30.69 billion. The firm’s shares soared on the announcement of a massive restructuring deal at the company that will see it shed 27,000 employees and save $3-$3.5 billion every year.

Analysts were expecting the company to earn just 91 cents per share on revenue of $29.9 billion. In the same period last year the company earned $1.05 per share. The overshoot combined with the cost cutting deal has driven the firm’s shares up over 5.5% in today’s trading to 22.25 at time of writing.

Here’s how the firm’s major competitors did in their earnings reports:

Dell Inc. (NASDAQ:DELL) announced its earnings on Tuesday May 22. The company showed 36 cents earnings per share on revenue of $14.4 billion. Those figures are much lower than the company’s earnings in the same period last year. In the first fiscal quarter of 2011 the company earned 49 cents a share. Revenue in the same period of last year were $15 billion. The company’s performance leaves a lot to be desired by investors and many are questioning the future of the company.

International Business Machines Corp. (NYSE:IBM) released their earnings for the first quarter on April 17. The company earned $2.61 per share on revenue of $2.311 per share. Excluding certain items the company earned $2.78 in the period. The firm’s strong showing is mostly associated with better performance in its business services sector. IBM shed its consumer hardware business some years ago in favor of providing enterprise solutions. The renewed business model has found favor among investors as the company continues to deliver higher earnings unlike many of the other big tech companies. HP is also heavily involved in the enterprise solutions industry.

Lenovo Group Limited (HKG:0992), the firm that purchased IBM’s hardware business, is also showing strong gains as it continues to develop products demanded by consumers. The company posted earnings of 65 cents per share on revenues of $29.6 billion. It was the best year ever at the firm as they continued to increase sales of their computers quarter by quarter. The firm’s consolidated sales saw a huge 54 per cent jump on a year on year basis. Shipment of computers rose by 44 per cent in the three months.

It’s a tough time for PC vendors and Hewlett Packard is the biggest of them all. The company sells more computers than any other manufacturer but those sales are taking a hit. A great deal of consumer, and enterprise, electronics spending is being diverted from the PC industry to the mobile computing industry.

Traditional PC manufacturers have had trouble gaining a foothold in those markets and most of the profits in the emerging devices sector all go to one company. Apple Inc. (NASDAQ:AAPL) is a tiny seller of PCs compared to any of the companies listed here (Excluding IBM). But they are the biggest company selling devices that more and more consumers are choosing over a personal computer for their next device.

The trend is powerful and just as we saw in the phone industry, Apple’s share of the profits in the total computing industry is exploding. Successful strategies from PC makers include IBM’s leaving the industry and Lenovo’s consistent design and extremely targeted product.

The tablet industry is where the money is flowing to. PC makers need to offer their own tablets, as many are attempting with Windows 8, or look forward to worse performance in the future.

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