Stocks to Watch: HP, Abercrombie & Fitch

NEW YORK -- Hewlett-Packard (HPQ), the PC maker, topped analysts' quarterly revenue and earnings estimates and delivered a better-than-expected outlook on Thursday.

HP reported fiscal first-quarter revenue of $28.4 billion, down from $30 billion a year earlier but above Wall Street forecasts of $27.79 billion. Excluding items, HP earned 82 cents a share, down from 92 cents but well above the consensus estimate of 71 cents. Earnings also surpassed HP's forecast of 68 cents to 71 cents a share.

Profit was "driven by improved execution, improvement in our channel and go-to-market efforts and the impact of the restructuring program we announced in May 2012," CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement on Thursday. "While there's still a lot of work to do to generate the kind of growth we want to see, our turnaround is starting to gain traction as a result of the actions we took in 2012 to lay the foundation for HP's future."

For the second quarter, HP expects earnings, excluding items, of 80 cents to 82 cents a share. Analysts were looking for earnings of 77 cents. HP predicts full-year earnings of $3.40 to $3.60 a share, well above Wall Street's estimate of $3.32.

HP's Earnings Surprise Wall Street; Shares Surge

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Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF) is expected by analysts Friday to post fourth-quarter earnings of $1.96 a share on revenue of $1.49 billion.

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KKR & Co. (KKR) submitted an offer of $75 a share for industrial machinery maker Gardner Denver (GDI), Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the matter.

The offer puts KKR in place to buy Gardner Denver, after sources told Reuters that other private-equity bidders have dropped out of the bidding process.

Gardner Denver shares closed Thursday at $67.47.

Cramer: Beware Too Much M&A Frenzy

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Charter Communications (CHTR) is forecast Friday to post a fourth-quarter loss of.28 cents a share on revenue of $1.91 billion, up 4% from a year earlier.

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United Airlines (UAL) said Thursday it was taking the grounded Boeing (BA) 787 Dreamliner out of its flight plans through June 5, and postponed its new Denver-to-Tokyo flights.

Investigators are still trying to figure out what caused a battery fire in one plane and forced the emergency landing of another plane last month. Boeing's 787s have been grounded since Jan. 16.

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-- Written by Joseph Woelfel



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