Hewlett-Packard Company (HPQ) Beats Street, but Whitman Misses

Are better days truly ahead?
Placing a bet on this company today first requires answering this question. It’s not as if the PC industry is suddenly going to rebound. After all, this is why Dell is going back into the huddle as a private company. HP still faces major hurdles going forward. And although Whitman lost a bit of credibility, the results show that she’s doing better than a decent job. And investors have to be encouraged that her big restructuring moves appear to be working. But does this make HP viable? Making matters worse, while the company is busy trying to stop its bleeding, Cisco and Oracle Corporation (NASDAQ:ORCL) are making investments into new end-markets. This means that, regardless of any progress seen in HP, the company will still be behind.

Whitman’s miscalculation on the software business notwithstanding, there’s a reason why it was discussed with such optimism several months ago. It means that software will be HP’s new focus going forward. But there has to be a leap at some point. Perhaps that leap is the rumored partnership with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG), and branching away from Windows, which would be devastating to Microsoft. But that’s not HP’s problem. And one thing is certain — with cash flow jumping up 115%, to $2.6 billion, HP does not look like a company ready to be sent to the glue factory.

The article HP Beats Street, but Whitman Misses originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Richard Saintvilus.

Fool contributor Richard Saintvilus has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool recommends Cisco Systems (NASDAQ:CSCO) and Google. The Motley Fool owns shares of Google, International Business (NYSE:IBM) Machines, Microsoft, and Oracle.

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