H-P's Nailing It

So much for suspense.

Last week Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote) accidentally sent an internal email bearing the quarter's financial results to an unidentified outsider, a gaffe which forced H-P to show its hand to the rest of the world and preannounce its earnings ahead of schedule.

The move spoiled the big upside surprise that H-P achieved during its fiscal second quarter.

That doesn't mean there won't be other important revelations when H-P officially delivers its results after Wednesday's market close.

For one thing, investors should get a better sense of the decidedly un-H-P-like growth in the top line.

H-P said sales in the fiscal second quarter will come in well ahead of analysts' expectations and range between $25.5 billion and $25.55 billion -- roughly a 13% jump year over year.

That's nice growth for any company, let alone a massive entity such as H-P, which models 4% to 6% revenue growth.

Those modest growth targets are one reason H-P's stock trades at a 15 times multiple on forward earnings, compared with the 17 times multiple commanded by rival Dell(DELL Quote). If H-P is suddenly capable of notching up double-digit growth after all, its current multiple could prove inadequate.

Of course, the second-quarter growth spurt is not all organic, as H-P had not yet acquired software maker Mercury Interactive at this time last year. And foreign currency effects also likely helped move the needle in the Palo Alto, Calif., company's latest results.

But even with those factors taken into account, H-P still beat its initial second-quarter guidance by a whopping $1 billion.