Hewlett-Packard Rallies on Strong Profit View

Shares of the technology bellwether jumped 13.7% to $33.38 in recent premarket trading and helped boost shares of other major tech companies.

The world's largest maker of personal computers sees net income for the quarter ended Oct. 31 rising to 84 cents from 81 cents a year earlier, with the latest results including 19 cents in acquisition-related costs. Revenue is seen rising 19% to $33.6 billion, or up 5% excluding H-P's acquisition of Electronic Data Sytems. Both figures were boosted 3 percentage points by the until-recently weaker dollar.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected earnings, excluding items, of $1 a share on revenue of $33.09 billion.

"H-P delivered another solid quarter as it continues to benefit from its global reach, diverse customer base, broad portfolio and numerous cost initiatives," said Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Hurd. The company announced plans in September to cut its work force by 24,000, or 7.5%, in the wake of its $13.9 billion EDS purchase.

"Our ability to execute in a challenging marketplace differentiates H-P, enabling it to increase share, expand earnings and emerge from the current economic environment as a stronger force," he added.

Numerous tech companies have been cautious near-term about their prospects. Last week Intel Corp. (INTC) slashed its expectations for the current quarter in light of slumping demand.

But H-P expects its own prospects to remain strong. For the just-started fiscal first quarter, it expects earnings excluding items of 93 cents to 95 cents on revenue of $32 billion to $32.5 billion. Analysts expected 93 cents and $33.73 billion, respectively.

H-P said revenue will be cut by nearly 5 percentage points this quarter because of the dollar's rally. The impact for the year is seen at 6 to 7 percentage points, and the company projected fiscal-year earnings of $3.88 to $4.04 a share on revenue of $127.5 billion to $130 billion. The Street was forecasting $3.85 and $135.06 billion, respectively.

The company will release the fourth quarter's full results Monday.

-- Emily Schulman, Dow Jones Newswires