Investors have high hopes for Hewlett-Packard 3Q results as PC business limps back to health

Ahead of the Bell: Hewlett-Packard 3Q earnings

SAN FRANCISCO — With the personal computer business limping back to health, Hewlett-Packard Co. is a likely beneficiary. More details will emerge Tuesday afternoon when the world’s No. 1 PC maker reports its fiscal third-quater earnings, for the three months ended July 13.

Investors expect a lot. In the 17 quarters that CEO Mark Hurd has been at HP, the company has beat Wall Street’s earnings per share estimate 15 times, and beat the revenue estimate 14 times, though there are often fears about the company’s ability to keep hitting its targets because of pressure in the PC and printing businesses.

Hurd believes he has the answer in a beefier computer-networking business that will pit HP against Cisco Systems Inc and technology services, where the rivalry with IBM Corp. is already hot. Aggressive cost-cutting plays a big role as well.

A lot of eyes will be on HP’s PC and printing business, though, since rival Dell Inc. has said spending by businesses remains weak and printer ink has long been a cash cow. HP’s numbers often serve as a proxy for the health of technology spending in general.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect HP to earn 90 cents per share on $27.2 billion in revenue, when one-time items are excluded. In the same period last year, HP earned 86 cents per share on $28 billion in revenue, on that same basis.