H-P Beats on Revenue, but Profit Slips

For the first quarter of fiscal 2009, H-P projected revenue of $32 billion to $32.5 billion and EPS, before items, of 93 cents to 95 cents a share. Analysts were expecting revenue of $32.75 billion and earnings, less items, of 91 cents a share.

The company also reported annual revenue of $118.4 billion, just above analysts' estimate of $118.08 billion. For fiscal 2009, H-P expects revenue of $127.5 billion to $130 billion. Analysts had estimated $130.56 billion.

H-P, which competes with Dell(DELL Quote), Lenovo and Apple(AAPL Quote) in hardware, and with IBM(IBM Quote) in services, recently declared a regular cash dividend of 8 cents a share.