Hewlett Packard Enterprise shares jumped 6.7% postmarket after its fiscal Q3 earnings easily cleared the consensus bar and the company presented upbeat guidance for the current quarter.
Revenues fell just 5.5% (or 4% on a currency-adjusted basis), well above expectations, as the core Compute division logged near-flat results and other declines were mitigated by a 3% increase in High Performance Compute & Mission Critical Systems. Storage saw a 10% fall, intelligent edge a 12% tumble.
Annualized revenue run-rate is $528m, up 11% Y/Y. Gross profit rose 8% sequentially to $2.1B; gross margin fell to 30.4% from 33.9% on a non-GAAP basis.
"We gained momentum in key areas of differentiation and accelerated our as-a-service pivot with strong ARR growth and a record number of HPE GreenLake services orders," said CEO Antonio Neri, pointing to pandemic-driven need for as-a-service offerings as well as secure connectivity and remote work. "We see a tremendous opportunity to help our customers drive digital transformations as they continue to adapt to operate in a new world.”
Revenue by segment: Intelligent Edge, $684m (down 12%); Compute, $3.4bn (flat); High Performance Compute & Mission Critical Systems, $649m (up 3%); Storage, $1.1bn (down 10%); Advisory & Professional Services, $226m (down 7%); Financial Services, $811m (down 9%).
Operating profit more than doubled sequentially to $12m on a GAAP basis.
