HP's fourth quarter results saw its shares jump seven per cent, after sales in its enterprise division grew, reinforcing CEO Meg Whitman's belief that revenue lost from HP's ailingPC business can be clawed back by the enterprise group.
The firm's revenue fell three per cent to $29.1bn (£18bn), but analysts had expected a six per cent fall. This, coupled with a two per cent year on year rise in revenue at the enterprise group, encouraged investors to believe that the 70 year old company can yet turn its fortunes around.
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The enterprise group had a 10 per cent rise in server sales and a three per cent increase of sales within the networking business. It had a 14.5 per cent operating margin.
Wall Street may have lowered expectations after HP had a nine per cent slide in sales in enterprise hardware in the previous quarter.
The company has been struggling to keep up with new trends in technology as PC sales fall, and smartphone and tablets sales rise. It is thought that Whitman has wanted to mimic IBM's strategy to focus on the enterprise, and perhaps even sell off its PC arm - in the same way that IBM sold its PC business to Lenovo in 2005.
But despite a positive quarter, Whitman warned that there is still much work to be done.
"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'," she said.
