HP Shares Zoom After Analyst Meeting

Look who’s leading the tech rebound.

Hewlett-Packard Co., which has socked its shareholders with a number of disappointing announcements in recent years, saw its shares zoom $14.06, or 12%, to $134.25 on Thursday after the No. 2 computer maker gave an upbeat presentation to Wall Street analysts.

Chief Executive Carly Fiorina hosted the company’s semiannual analyst meeting Wednesday in New York, where she reiterated a forecast for sales growth of 15% this year.

The company also is working hard to resolve lingering problems in its storage and Unix computer server businesses, she said.

Despite the tech sector’s slump since March, HP shares (ticker symbol: HWP) are up 19% this year, making them the third-best performer in the Dow Jones industrial average.

“We’re pounding the table on HP,” analyst John Jones of Salomon Smith Barney said Thursday.

Profitability in the Unix business will improve and sales growth in that division will rise to as much as 35% in the second half, said Jones, who rates the stock a “buy.”

Fiorina also unveiled an agreement for HP to supply 90% of Amazon.com’s computers during the next 18 months. Analysts value the agreement at about $500 million. Seattle-based Amazon.com is the largest Internet retailer.

Analyst Kurtis King of Banc of America Securities raised his rating on HP to a “strong buy” from a “buy.” Analyst Donald Young of PaineWebber Inc., who rates the stock “attractive,” said he expects the price to reach $175 within 12 months.

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HP’s Revival

Shares of Hewlett-Packard soared Thursday after the company presented a bullish outlook to analysts.

Weekly closes and latest:

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Thursday: $134.25, up $14.06

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Source: Bridge News