HP ends financial year “on a high” as enterprise revenue climbs

HP posted a rise in enterprise group revenues as part of its Q4 and fiscal 2013 results, causing its share price to rise.

Enterprise group revenue was up two per cent year-on-year with a 14.5% operating margin. Networking revenue rose three per cent, Industry Standard Servers was up 10 per cent, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 17 per cent, Storage revenue was up one per cent and Technology Services was down six per cent.

Shares leapt as much as eight per cent following the news.

Q4 net revenues reached $29.1 billion, down three per cent year-on-year.

Overall for fiscal 2013, net revenues reached $112.3 billion, down seven per cent, while net earnings reached $5.1 billion, an improvement over fiscal 2012’s loss of $12.7 billion.

HP said it improved its operating company net debt position by $1.3 billion to an operating company net cash position in the fourth quarter – the seventh consecutive quarterly improvement of over $1 billion.

HP’s categories performed as follows during its fiscal Q4 period: 

• Personal Systems revenue was down 2% year over year with a 3.0% operating margin. Commercial revenue increased 4% and Consumer revenue declined 10%. Total units were up 2% with Desktops units down 5% and Notebooks units up 3%.
• Printing revenue was down 1% year over year with a 17.7% operating margin. Total hardware units were up 6% with Commercial hardware units up 9% and Consumer hardware units up 4%. Supplies revenue was down 4%.
• Enterprise Group revenue was up 2% year over year with a 14.5% operating margin. Networking revenue was up 3%, Industry Standard Servers revenue was up 10%, Business Critical Systems revenue was down 17%, Storage revenue was up 1% and Technology Services revenue was down 6%.
• Enterprise Services revenue declined 9% year over year with a 4.4% operating margin. Application and Business Services revenue was down 10%, and Infrastructure Technology Outsourcing revenue declined 9%.
• Software revenue was down 9% year over year with a 30.8% operating margin. Support revenue was up 4%, license revenue was down 24%, professional services revenue was down 13% and software-as-a-service ("SaaS") revenue was up 15%.
• HP Financial Services revenue was down 6% year over year with a 5% decrease in net portfolio assets and a 3% decrease in financing volume. The business delivered an operating margin of 11.2%.

Meg Whitman, HP’s president and CEO, said the company ended its financial year on a high.

"Through improved execution, strong cost management, and with the support of our customers and partners, HP ended fiscal 2013 on a high note," she said.

"Our Q4 results demonstrate that HP’s turnaround remains on track heading into fiscal 2014. While we still have much more work to do, our business units and their core assets are delivering on HP’s strategy to help customers thrive by providing solutions for the New Style of IT."