No company likes to miss the mark when it comes to earnings and that is exactly what happened with computer giant Hewlett-Packard. HP recently reported that for the first quarter of 2011 they brought in a revenue of $32.3 billion. Sounds good right? Well, even though it is an increase of 4% from last year, it is still slightly below what Wall Street was expecting to see.

Analysts on Wall Street were expecting a revenue somewhere between $32.75 billion and $33.59 billion with earnings per share between $1.26 and $1.32. However, the earnings per share for HP came in at $1.17 which includes 19 cents per share in after-tax costs. This was a 26% increase from the $0.93 per share HP experienced last year but still below what was expected.

CEO of HP Leo Apotheker released an upbeat statement concerning the earnings report. According to Apotheker, “I’m pleased with our EPS and margin expansion during the quarter. Going forward, we have the opportunity to further capitalize on our customers’ demands for higher value-added solutions. HP has a powerful portfolio, including exciting, recently announced cloud and connectivity offerings. We are focused on leveraging these strengths to extend our leadership and accelerate growth.”

I don’t know about you, but it must be nice to complain about only earning $32.3 billion. In my opinion I do not think Hewlett-Packard has anything to worry about. They are still making some pretty awesome pieces of equipment and are still one of the world leaders in the technology industry rivaling Apple, Microsoft, Dell and other big name companies across the globe. Let’s be honest, $32.3 billion in revenue isn’t all that bad and if they are not happy with it, I will gladly take all of it off of their hands for them.

Source: cnet News – HP first-quarter earnings slightly miss expectations

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