Hewlett-Packard Co's (HP) fiscal second-quarter profit rose 51 percent on Tuesday as the printer and computer company benefited from cost cutting, gains in PC market share and higher revenue.
For the three months ended April 30, HP earned US$1.46 billion, or US$0.51 a share, compared with US$966 million, or US$0.33 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
Sales rose 5 percent to US$22.6 billion from US$21.6 billion in the second quarter of last year.
Excluding one-time expenses, HP earned US$1.6 billion, or US$0.54 per share, compared with a profit of US$1.1 billion, or US$0.37 per share, in the same period last year.
On that basis, which does not comply with generally accepted accounting principles, HP beat Wall Street's expectations.
Analysts were expecting the company to earn US$0.49 a share on sales of US$22.6 billion, according to a Thomson Financial survey.
"This was another good quarter for HP," chief executive Mark Hurd said in a conference call. "We grew revenue, expanded margins and generated record cash flow."
Sales in the division that makes personal computers grew 10 percent to US$7 billion as HP shipped 16 percent more machines than last year. Hurd said
HP's share of shipments in the quarter gained 1.4 percentage points worldwide and 2 percentage points in the US.
He did not provide more specific market-share numbers.
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