Earnings Labs

HP Inc. (HPQ)

Q4 2005 Earnings Call· Mon, Nov 28, 2005

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Transcript

Operator

Operator

Good day, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to the Hewlett-Packard Q4 FY '05 Earnings Conference Call. My name is Rachel, and I'll be you coordinator today. Operator Instructions As a reminder, ladies and gentlemen, this conference is being recorded for replay purposes. I would now like to turn the presentation over to your host for today's call, Mr. Brian Humphries, VP of Investor Relations.

Brian Humphries

Management

Thank you, Rachel, and good afternoon, everyone. I'd like to welcome you to our fourth quarter earnings conference call. Joining me today is our CEO and President, Mark Hurd; and CFO, Bob Wayman. Before we get started, I'd like to remind you that this call is being Webcast live. The Webcast and the fourth quarter earnings slide presentation, including GAAP reconciliation tables, can be accessed on HP Investor Relations page under Company Information at www.hp.com. A replay will also be available shortly after the conclusion of the call for approximately one year. Next, it is my duty to inform you that the primary purpose of this call is to provide you with information regarding the fourth quarter. However, some of our comments and responses to your questions may include forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on certain assumptions and are subject to a number of risks and uncertainties, and actual future results may vary materially. I encourage you to read the risk factors described in the Company's quarterly report on Form 10-Q for the fiscal quarter ended July 31st, 2005, as well as subsequent SEC filings after our FY '04 Form 10-K for an understanding of the factors that may affect the Company's businesses and results. I'd also like to point out that earnings, gross margins, operating expenses, and similar items discussed at the Company level are generally expressed on a non-GAAP basis and, therefore, have been adjusted to exclude certain acquisition-related charges, in-process R&D charges, amortization of goodwill and purchased intangibles, restructuring charges, and net investment losses. A presentation of GAAP financial information for the present quarter and a reconciliation of non-GAAP amounts to GAAP are included in the financial statements accompanying today's earnings release, which is also available on the HP Investor Relations page under hp.com. Finally, we have a lot of people on today's call, and with a view to allowing time for multiple questions from multiple firms, please refrain from asking multi-part questions and please save clarifications for call-back after the call. With that, I'll turn the call over to Mark Hurd.

Mark Hurd

Management

Thanks, Brian. Well, good afternoon, and thank you for joining us. I'm pleased with our fourth quarter results. We delivered solid operational results, saw margin expansion in some of our key businesses, had good cost discipline, generated strong cash flow, and continued to make progress on key initiatives. The employees of HP have been working hard, and our efforts are paying off. Let me give you some highlights of the quarter. First, net revenue growth of 7%, year-over-year, or 6% in local currency. Non-GAAP EPS growth of 24% year-over-year. Continued operating margin expansion in key businesses, with Personal Systems' operating margins of 2.8%, Enterprise Storage and Servers' margins of 9.1%, and Software margins of 8.7%. Our third consecutive quarter of solid printer hardware unit growth in Imaging and Printing, one of the leading indicators of future supplies growth. Cash flow from operations of 1.9 billion, bringing the year-to-date total to 8 billion, and share repurchases of 1.4 billion, bringing the year-to-date total to 3.5 billion. Our performance in the fourth quarter, coupled with a solid third quarter, triggered significant employee bonuses for the second half of fiscal 2005. And the fourth quarter impact of this is reflected in the segment results. Now turning quickly to the business segments. During the fourth quarter, Imaging and Printing revenue grew 4% year-over-year, to 6.8 billion, with Consumer Hardware revenue down 4% and Commercial Hardware revenue and Supplies revenue up 4% and 7%, respectively. Segment operating profit was 896 million, or 13.2% of revenue. During the quarter, overall printer hardware unit growth was 8%, with consumer printer hardware unit shipments up 6% and commercial printer hardware unit shipments up 16%. Within these categories, we saw strong unit shipment growth in key initiatives, with All-In-One unit shipments up 25% year-over-year, color laser unit shipments up…

Bob Wayman

Operator

Thank you, Mark, and good afternoon, everyone. Let me begin with a quick review of the performance of our Financial Services business. Revenue for HPFS during the quarter was 514 million, up 3% year-over-year and 5% sequentially. Operating margin was 10.1%, up from 3.8% last year, and down from 11.9% in Q3. The improvement in margin is largely due to the fact that Q4 '04 results were adversely impacted by the recording of reserves for certain receivables. During the course of FY '05, the risk profile of the portfolio has steadily improved, and the reserve levels have been adjusted accordingly. Financing volume decreased 1% year-over-year, and was up 21% sequentially. Portfolio assets decreased 3% year-over-year, and increased 1% sequentially. Now, onto the key elements of the P&L. Non-GAAP EPS was $0.51, up from $0.41 a year ago. GAAP EPS for the quarter was $0.14, which included 1.1 billion, or $0.37, in after-tax adjustments that were not included in our non-GAAP results. The majority of the adjustments relate to pre-tax restructuring charges of 1.6 billion, which is a more significant charge than the 1.1 billion that we estimated when we announced our restructuring in July. The increase over our initial estimates is due to the following: approximately 250 million, primarily associated with higher U.S. early retirement program costs versus our original estimates, and incremental expense from the acceleration of vesting and extension of exercise periods on stock options; approximately 200 million, primarily arising from differences in the job mix of terminated employees versus original estimates; and we now expect to include approximately 15,300 employees in our announced restructuring program, approximately 800 more than our original estimate. While some of these additional costs will not yield additional savings, we do expect roughly 150 million in incremental annual gross savings beginning in FY…