HP beats revenue forecast

Hewlett-Packard beat revenue forecasts thanks to growing sales to businesses, inspiring cautious optimism about the company's turnaround plan.

Revenue from the sprawling enterprise group climbed 2 percent, aided by a 10 percent rise in server sales and 3 percent growth of the networking business.

Wall Street had low expectations for HP following a disappointing third-quarter performance, after rivals such as International Business Machines and Cisco Systems had reported poor results.

Edward Jones technology analyst Bill Kreher. "There is some hope, given that the company was able to jump over what was admittedly a pretty low hurdle."

He cautioned, though, that any signs of a turnaround will remain uneven.

Revenue fell across most of HP's business divisions except the enterprise group, whose sales edged up to $7.6 billion (£4.69bn). Sales from HP's largest, PC-focused unit slipped 2 percent to $8.58 billion (£5.29bn) while the printing division's sales dipped 1 percent to $6.04 billion (£3.72bn).

Chief executive Meg Whitman is focused on expanding HP, despite falling personal computer sales globally.

Whitman, who took the helm of the world's largest PC maker more than a year ago, is trying to wean the Silicon Valley icon off sales of personal computers. Last month, she told Wall Street she expects revenue to stabilize in 2014, with some areas of growth for the company.

With the help of job cuts and expansion into markets and areas with longer-term potential such as enterprise computing services, the CEO is trying to revive growth.