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HP earnings in line with Street; shares tumble

Simon Dawson | Bloomberg | Getty Images

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) generally met Street expectations Tuesday when it reported earnings of $1.06 per share on revenue of $28.4 billion. However, shares fell as much as 2 percent as revenue generated from key subsidies trailed forecasts.

Sales form the technology company's enterprise unit totaled $7.27 billion, versus StreetAccount forecast for $7.51 billion.

"I'm excited to say that HP's turnaround continues on track," CEO Meg Whitman said in a statement. "In FY14, we stabilized our revenue trajectory, strengthened our operations, showed strong financial discipline, and once again made innovation the cornerstone of our company.

During the firm's conference call Tuesday, Whitman said 41,000 employees left the company during the 2014 fiscal year, bringing the employee count to 275,000.

She noted that the company needs to "double down" on innovation and said she expects the turnaround to "accelerate" in 2015.

The company said personal computer revenue totaled $8.95 billion, which was slightly better-than expectations, as notebook sales rose 8 percent. However, desktop revenue fell 2 percent.

Revenue from HP's printing sector came in at $5.74 billion, missing StreetAccount estimates for $5.78 billion. The company said consumer printing revenue fell 4 percent and commercial printing sales rose 5 percent.

"It's a company who actually gets some benefits from the bar being so low in the PC business. They are actually taking market share in the U.S. even though the PC business we know has been flagging," said Tim Seymour of Triogem Asset Management. "I think it's a stock you buy on any weakness here. I don't think you need to buy it today but I think the stock looks very interesting on valuation."

Analysts expected Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) to report fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $1.06 per share on revenue of $28.76 billion, according to consensus estimates from Thomson Reuters.

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During the year-ago period, the company generated earnings of $1.01 per share on sales of $29.1 billion.

Looking forward, the company expects fiscal first-quarter earnings to come in between 89 cents and 93 cents per share, on an adjusted basis. In comparison, Wall Street expects HP to report between 85 cents and $1.03 per share, according to Thomson Reuters.

The company announced in early October that it was spinning off into two separately listed firms -one company would focus on computers and printers under the name HP Inc., and another would prioritize corporate hardware and services operations under the name Hewlett-Packard Enterprise.

Hewlett-Packard has also targeted the 3-D printing market with its new Multi Jet Fusion technology that aims to solve many challenges with 3-D printing and pose serious competition for other 3-D printing firms.

-CNBC's Michelle Fox and Hailey Lee contributed to this report.