Will Mark Hurd Write a Book?

On November 19, Hewlett Packard Co (NYSE:HPQ) posted its Q4 earnings that beat all estimates. Revenue went up 15% y-o-y and 11.4% q-o-q to $28.3 billion. GAAP operating profit was $2.6 billion and GAAP diluted EPS was $0.81, up from $0.6 in Q4 2006. For full fiscal 2007, net revenue was $104.3 billion (up 14%), GAAP operating profit was $8.7 billion, and GAAP diluted EPS was $2.68, up from $2.18 in fiscal 2006.

Segment wise, Personal Systems Group (PSG) revenue grew 30% y-o-y and 13.5% q-o-q to $10.1 billion. PSG had exceptional growth in emerging markets especially China where it saw more than 100% growth. For fiscal 2007, PSG grew $7.2 billion in revenue. Within the segment, with the continuing trend toward mobility, notebook revenue grew 49% y-o-y, while desktop revenue grew 15% y-o-y. >>>

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Dell’s Turnaround: Not Bad

On November 29, Dell (Nasdaq: DELL) reported results for its third quarter of fiscal year 2008 ending 2 November, 2007. Earlier posts are available here and here. Revenue was $15.6 billion, up 9% y-o-y. Operating income increased 13% to $829 million and EPS was $0.34 (up 26% y-o-y) driven by strength in mobility, solid demand in enterprise products and a favorable component-cost environment.

Mobility products revenue went up 19% y-o-y and 22% q-o-q to $4.7 billion. Desktop revenue decreased 1% y-o-y and 5% q-o-q to $4.8 billion, with the industry shifting towards mobility. Revenue from both servers and storage increased 8% y-o-y. Enhanced services revenue increased 7% to $1.4 billion. Software and peripherals revenue increased 11% y-o-y.

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IBM’s Portfolio Rebalancing

I recently wrote about IBM just before its earnings were released. Here’s an update.

International Business Machines Corporation (NYSE: IBM) released their earnings for Q3 on October 16. Total revenues were $24.1 billion, up 6.6% y-o-y. Diluted earnings were $1.68 per share, up 16% y-o-y.

Segment-wise, Global Business Services had revenues of $4.6 billion, a y-o-y increase of 15.9% driven by growth in core consulting and application management services. Global Technology Services segment revenues were $9.1 billion, up 12.8% y-o-y. Total Global Services revenues went up by 14% y-o-y. In Q3, IBM signed services contracts for a total of $11.8 billion, up 12% y-o-y. Long-term signings were up 29%, while short-term signings were down 5%. >>>

iPhone’s Competitors: Que Pasa?

In my earlier posts, I have written on the exclusive carrier of iPhone, AT&T and its rivals Verizon, Sprint Nextel, and T-Mobile. This post will look at these companies wrt each other and the impact of iPhone on their business after a full quarter of iPhone sales. >>>

Nokia’s 28% Sales Growth Underscores Strong Execution

In this post, I will look at recent developments in Nokia and Motorola. Earlier posts were featured in the iPhone series are available here and here. For the record, I own Nokia in my portfolio, as part of my convergence device bet along with RIMM, which I just bought as well. >>>

Good Time to Buy SanDisk

On August 31, just around the time I wrote my last post on Sandisk, it announced the introduction of Memory Stick Micro (M2) flash memory cards that would be mainly used in Sony Ericsson mobiles. The price is $149.99 for 8Gb and $99.99 for 4Gb.

On October 18, SanDisk (NASDAQ:SNDK) released its third quarter earnings. Revenue for the quarter increased 38% y-o-y to $1.037 billion. GAAP net income was $85 million, or $0.36 per diluted share, down 17% y-o-y and up 203% sequentially. Product revenue was $919 million, up 36% y-o-y and 28% sequentially. License and royalty revenue was $119 million, up 52% y-o-y and 11% sequentially. >>>

Samsung’s Convergence Device Prospects Remain Strong

I recently covered Samsung, a major vendor of iPhone’s components which also has the manufacturing and design capabilities to become the iPhone’s major competitor in the future. This post will take a look at the company since its earnings release on 12 October.

For the third quarter ending Sept. 30, 2007, Samsung reported revenues of 16.68 trillion won or $18.16 billion, a y-o-y increase of 9.6% and a sequential increase of 14%. Net income was 2.19 trillion won or $2.38 billion, up 1% y-o-y and 54% sequential increase after three consecutive quarters of losses.

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Convergence Device: Nokia Aligns with ST, Motorola with Infineon

Following my posts on Texas Instruments, STMicro, ARM, Infineon in the iPhone and the Future series as well as the iPhone’s Component Ecosystem series, here is an update on the companies.

Texas Instruments Incorporated (NYSE: TXN) reported revenues of $3.66 billion for the third-quarter 2007 on 22 October, up 7% sequentially and down 3% y-o-y. Increased demand for analog semiconductor products and back-to-school demand for graphing calculators led to the sequential growth. EPS was $0.52, an increase of 24% sequentially and 16% y-o-y.

Revenue in the Semiconductor segment was $3.46 billion (up 6% q-o-q and down 3% y-o-y). Within the semiconductor segment, sequential increase was 10% in analog and 6% in DSP revenue. Revenue in the Education Technology segment was $202 million.

In the third quarter, TI repurchased $1.4 billion of its stock. In September, its Board authorized an additional $5 billion in repurchases. For the fourth quarter, TI expects revenue to be in the range $3.40 to $3.68 billion and EPS to be in between $0.48 and $0.54.

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Apple’s Momentum Will Continue

I have written extensively on the iPhone. You can find them under the iPhone and the Future series as well as the iPhone’s Component Ecosystem series. My last post on Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) was just a month after the release of iPhone. A month or so later on September 5, it announced a $200 reduction in the price of the 8GB model. The 4GB model has been discontinued. For its early iPhone customers, it is offering a $100 store credit for buying Apple products at its stores. The announcement was met with mixed reactions.

Soon after on September 10, it reached the milestone of 1 million iPhone sales. It started selling iPhones in UK and Germany on November 9, partnering with O2 in the U.K. and with T-Mobile in Germany. It will start selling the iPhones in France from November 29th, partnering with Orange. [I have covered the iPhone’s impact on the US carriers in some detail before.] >>>

Intel Aligned With Multiple Trends

Here’s an update on Intel since my last posts on the company, available here, here (discussion of Intel’s opportunity in the Convergence Device segment) and here (discussion of the multi-core issues).

Intel (INTC) recently announced its results for the third-quarter of fiscal 2007 in October. It reported a 15% y-o-y and 16% sequential increase in revenue to $10.1 billion. Net income was $1.9 billion and EPS was 31 cents. Operating income increased 66% sequentially from $1.35 billion in Q2 to $2.2 billion. Gross margin in the quarter increased from 46.9 % in Q2 to 52.4%, driven mainly by higher microprocessor volumes, lower 45nm start-up costs and lower microprocessor unit costs. >>>