Hewlett-Packard quarterly profit rises...

Hewlett-Packard Co, the world's biggest computer maker, reported a higher quarterly profit on Tuesday on solid international sales in its computer and printer businesses, which overcame pockets of weak technology spending.

HP reported net income for the fiscal quarter ending July 31 of $2.5 billion, or 80 cents a share, up from $1.78 billion, or 66 cents per diluted share, in the year-ago quarter.

Excluding items, HP reported profit of 86 cents a share, ahead of the average analyst expectation of 84 cents a share.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $28.0 billion, ahead of Wall Street expectations of $27.43 billion.

The Palo Alto, California-based company forecast fiscal fourth-quarter profit, excluding items, of $1.01 to $1.03 a share, ahead of the average analyst view of $1 a share. The company forecast revenue of $30.2 billion to $30.3 billion, slightly behind the average forecast of $30.4 billion.

Revenue from outside the United States accounted for 68 percent of the total. Adjusted for currency exchange rates, Europe, Middle East and Africa revenue rose 5 percent, and Asia Pacific revenue rose 8 percent. Revenue in the Americas rose 3 percent.

Despite 3 percent U.S. growth in the third quarter, Chairman and Chief Executive Mark Hurd told reporters on a conference call that this was better than the company had expected, and marked a pickup from its second fiscal quarter.

HP and other PC makers have been depending on strong overseas growth as U.S. performance has lagged because of wider economic troubles.

European technology spending has been "more of a mixed bag," Hurd said, but added that the company has seen some surprising growth in some markets in the region.

Revenue in the personal systems group rose 15 percent to $10.3 billion, with unit shipments up 20 percent from last year. Notebook revenue grew 26 percent from last year, while desktop revenue rose 6 percent.

Commercial computer revenue in the group grew 15 percent and consumer computer revenue grew 17 percent.

Imaging and printing revenue grew 3. Enterprise storage and servers revenue rose 5 percent. Services revenue rose 14 percent, while software revenue rose 29 percent and financial services revenue rose 17 percent.