Once-troubled computing giant Hewlett-Packard turned in its strongest financial performance in seven years during its third quarter of the financial year.

It was once again the company’s PC division that drove year-on-year revenue growth of 16%, reaching $24.5 billion. Sales at HP’s Personal Systems Group grew 29% to reach almost $9 billion.

Meanwhile the printing division - HP’s most profitable enterprise - enjoyed a 76% boost in sales of multifunction printers, and revenues reached $6.8 billion. The company’s software division grew by 74% to revenues of $554m, thanks mainly to the company’s acquisition of Mercury last year.    

Profit at the company grew 29% to reach $1.8 billion. The company has benefited in this regard from falling component prices and reduced operational costs following data-centre consolidation, real-estate rationalisation and more the 15,000 job cuts during the past two years.

So secure do HP’s financial fortunes appear that even its expectation-beating third quarter results failed to affect its share price significantly. "It's a very strong quarter but not much of a surprise. A lot of this was already baked into the stock price," said Anders Bylund, analyst with financial trading advisory The Motley Fool.

Information Age Today - Three reporters sue HP - August 2007
Information Age company analysis - HP's Opsware buys adds optimisation
Information Age financial report -  Fiorina's legacy? - June 2007