Hewlett-Packard Lowers Expectations after Rough Earnings Report

Hewlett-Packard (NYSE: HPQ) missed on its full-year earnings yesterday, prompting new CEO Meg Whitman to tell investors to lower their expectations.

Shares of the technology stock have fallen nearly 50 percent from a mid-February high of $49.39. The stock was trading at $26.17 in mid-day trading today. The decline is due largely to its stagnating personal-computer, printing and server businesses. And it doesn’t appear to be getting better anytime soon: HP’s earnings expectations for the next quarter are between 83 and 86 cents a share, much lower than the average expectation among analysts of $1.11 per share.

Whitman is trying to improve HP’s earnings outlook in 2013 and beyond as she works to clean up the mess left behind by the man she replaced, former CEO Leo Apotheker. One problem, Whitman says, is that the company has “created confusion among many of our shareholders about what kind of company HP is.”

Bloomberg has a full write-up today that details Hewlett-Packard’s rebuilding effort. To read it, click here.

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