Dividend.com: H-P Printing Less Profit

H-P Announces 6,400 More Layoffs as Profit Falls 17%

Computer and printer giant Hewlett-Packard(HPQ) said late Tuesday that its fiscal second-quarter profit declined 17% from last year, hurt by lower PC and printer ink sales.

The Palo Alto, Calif.-based company reported fiscal second-quarter net income of $1.72 billion, or 70 cents per share, compared with $2.1 billion, or 80 cents per share, in the year-ago period. Excluding one-time charges, however, HP said it earned 86 cents per share. Sales fell 3% from year-ago levels to $27.4 billion.

The results were enough to meet analysts' estimates. On average, Wall Street analysts expected a profit of 86 cents per share on $27.4 billion in revenue. HP claimed that it actually beat estimates, since its latest figures included a 2 cents per-share charge stemming from a patent dispute. The No. 1 maker of PCs also said that sales would have risen 3% in the period had it not been for negative effects of the stronger dollar.

HP said that in the latest quarter, PC sales fell 19%, printers and ink fell 23%, and servers and storage equipment sales slumped 28% from year-ago levels.

The company announced plans to lay off an additional 6,400 workers, about 2% of its workforce, over the next year. HP has already cut 24,600 jobs as a result of its recent acquisition of Electronic Data Systems, an IT services company that HP acquired for $13.9 billion last year.

HP maintained its full-year profit forecast range of $3.76 to $3.88 per share for the full fiscal year 2009, but raised its expected sales-decline range from 2% to 5% to 4% to 5%.