Hewlett-Packard Quarterly Earnings Give New Shine to Tech Stocks

Hewlett-Packard (HPQ) had the world of Technology on its shoulders as the market closed Tuesday reporting its final 2007 numbers and gaving guidance for 2008. The all important US technology outlook was in many minds, yet HPQ delivered very well globally. Bullish guidance led by International sales gains powered the stock after-hours to its own set of gains.

Talk of US consumers being weaker, has been well known now from every other previously reporting Tech company but HP's claim that there is strong global marketplace out there gave Technology Traders some hope of continued growth going forward. PC shipments rose 23%, Servers and Storage 9% and the old faithful Printer business rose 4%. For total numbers, the company increased profits from $1.55Billion (55 cents a share) to $2.13Billion (80 cents a share). Driving this increase, was obviously the growth in shipments, but also favourable pricing on components and thus widening margins. The margin metric was one of the keys spurring after-hours buying of the stock.

Looking at HP's successes, one had to analyze what this means for technology. It's clear the marketplace is strong globally, even with weakening in the US, and as such it is the companies with big International operations that will be in the strongest positions. HP affirmed this and let Investors know that International Operations account for 69% of sales, meaning they'll whether those US economic blues much better than most.

Disclosure: Author does not own HPQ