H-P Hits the Hot Spots

SAN FRANCISCO -- The stock market may be in turmoil, but it hasn't robbed Hewlett-Packard(HPQ Quote - Cramer on HPQ - Stock Picks) of its ability to dazzle the Street.

Analysts are looking for H-P to book $24 billion in revenue when it reports its fiscal third-quarter results after Thursday's market close, up 9.6% year over year.

That's considerably better than the 4% to 6% revenue growth that H-P models as its normal performance, and it would represent an addition of more than $2 billion to the top line.

What's driving this uncharacteristic growth?

According to American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu, H-P is benefiting from being in all the right places at the right time.

PC sales are growing at a double-digit clip, a boon for H-P, whose PC business comprises one-third of total company revenue. Moreover, H-P is particularly strong within the PC industry's two hot categories: laptops and consumer retail.

And, Wu notes, about two-thirds of H-P's total revenue comes from outside the U.S., where technology sales overall are growing at a much brisker pace.

"They're well-positioned in the growth areas," Wu says.

As usual, investors got a hint of H-P's PC performance from the industry shipment figures reported by market research firms last month (although these firms track the second quarter of the calendar year, which overlaps with only two months in H-P's fiscal quarter).

Once again H-P is cleaning up, delivering 36.6% year-over-year growth in its worldwide PC shipments, according to Gartner.

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