Hewlett-Packard 1Q Profit Tops Estimates

By JORDAN ROBERTSON

SAN FRANCISCO – Hewlett-Packard Co.’s first-quarter profit jumped 26 percent as the company benefited from higher sales of laptop computers, printers and printing supplies during a robust holiday spending season.

The company on Tuesday said it earned $1.55 billion, or 55 cents per share, for the quarter ended Jan. 31, compared with $1.23 billion, or 42 cents per share, for the same period last year.

The Palo Alto-based computer and printer maker said revenue for the period was $25.1 billion, compared with $22.7 billion during the same quarter last year.

Excluding one-time charges, HP said it earned $1.8 billion, or 65 cents per share, beating analyst forecasts.

Analysts were expecting HP to earn, on average, 62 cents per share on $24.3 billion in revenue, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.