HP Earnings Fall, Stock is Hammered, But TouchPad Earns #2 Tablet Spot

From DailyTech: Hewlett-Packard Comp. (HPQ) was in for a bad quarter, according to analyst predictions. Reporting its results after the bell on Monday, it painted a picture of drooping revenue that, while disappointing, did contain some promising signs.

Revenue fell almost exactly where the experts predicted. The company reported Q4 2011 revenue of $32.122B USD (GAAP adjusted), just a hair beneath the $32.135B USD analyst consensus. Likewise the annual reported GAAP revenue of $127.245B USD for fiscal 2011 was almost identical to the $127.257B USD analysts expected.

The loan positive for HP was its non-GAAP net earnings (profit), which were reported at $1.17 USD/share, better than the $1.1416 USD/share analysts were expecting. Likewise non-GAAP annual earnings for fiscal 2011 were at $4.88 USD/share, better than the $4.85 USD/share consensus.

Both revenue and earnings were down versus 2010 on an annual basis and Q3 2010 on a quarterly basis.

In summary, HP's revenue fell short of the analyst predictions, but its earnings did better than predicted.

Of course, the revenue picture for HP is still pretty bleak when you consider the GAAP earnings, which factor in the discounts and other costs of freezing webOS development and killing the webOS product lineup. HP estimates the webOS wind-down cost it $3.3B USD. With those costs included HP was barely profitable, with $0.2B USD in GAAP net earnings, versus $2.5B USD last year.

HP somewhat offset the webOS losses thanks to the strong demand for its TouchPads, which were sold at a $99 USD price (or lower) during an August fire sale clearance. In total 1.2 million units were moved -- rough 17 percent of total U.S. tablet sales for the quarter, according to the NPD Group. That makes the TouchPad the second best-selling tablet behind Apple, Inc.'s (AAPL) iPad. (Samsung Electronics Comp., Ltd. (), the top Android tablet maker was close behind with 16 percent of the market.)

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