HPE quarterly profit beats on demand for servers

Source: Hewlett Packard Enterprise

New server racks in the Hewlett Packard Enterprise Executive Briefing Center feature the new branding.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit and raised its full-year earnings forecast on Tuesday, helped by higher demand for its servers, storage and networking equipment.

The company, created in 2015 from the breakup of Hewlett-Packard, said it now expects adjusted profit between $1.40 and $1.50 per share for 2018. The company had previously forecast profit of $1.35 to $1.45 per share.

Revenue from Hybrid IT division, which houses servers, storage and data center networking products, rose 7 percent to $6.02 billion in the quarter ended April 30.

Analysts on average had expected $6.07 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

Net profit was $778 million, or 50 cents per share, in the second quarter ended April 30, compared with a loss of $612 million, or 37 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding items, the company reported earnings of 34 cents per share, above analysts’ expectation of 31 cents per share.

Revenue rose about 10 percent to $7.47 billion.