By Edwin Chan
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Hewlett Packard Co's revenue fell less than Wall Street expected in the first quarter and it raised its outlook for fiscal 2014 earnings, as the computing giant grew sales at its two largest businesses and again signaled a better year ahead.
HP, which is in the midst of a multi-year turnaround effort intended to revive growth, is trying to wean the Silicon Valley company off its traditional focus on sales of personal computers and re-orient on computing equipment and networking gear for enterprises.
Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman, who took the helm of the world's largest PC maker more than a year ago, has said she expects revenue to stabilize in 2014, with some areas of growth for the company.
On Thursday, she told Reuters she was upbeat on their European business as the developed part of that region stabilized, and saw strength in emerging markets like India and Mexico. She added that HP's business in China stayed largely flat, better than competitors had fared.
On Thursday, HP raised the lower end of its full-year earnings outlook slightly, to $3.60 to $3.75 versus a previous forecast for $3.55 to $3.75.
Investors have been cautious on the outlook for computing companies after IBM posted disappointing results, in part because of slowing corporate and emerging markets demand, and a backlash against U.S. corporations in China over revelations of U.S. spying activity abroad.
Cisco Systems Inc, a rival in networking equipment, forecast a 6 percent to 8 percent decline in revenue this quarter.
For the first quarter, HP posted revenue of $28.2 billion, down slightly from $28.4 billion a year earlier and beating expectations for about $27.2 billion.
Revenue from personal systems, which includes PCs, rose 4 percent, while sales from its enterprise group edged 1 percent higher.
The company posted a 16 percent rise net earnings of $1.4 billion in the first quarter, compared to $1.2 billion a year ago. Excluding items, it earned 90 cents a share, better than the 84 cents analysts had expected, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Shares of HP gained a penny to $30.20 after hours, from a close of $30.19 on the New York Stock Exchange.
(Reporting by Edwin Chan; Editing by Bernard Orr)
