Shares in Hewlett-Packard slipped yesterday despite confirming that fiscal fourth-quarter earnings had quadrupled.
Shares of HP fell as much as 53 cents to $39.60 in after-hours trading, a decline that one analyst put down to "minor profit taking" following a "very solid" quarter.
HP shares had closed up 34 cents to $40.13 on the New York Stock Exchange before the company reported.
HP said that for the three months ended October 31st it earned $1.7 billion or 60 cents per share, compared with $416 million, or 14 cents per share, in the same quarter last year.
The company registered higher sales of laptop computers, printers and servers.
Excluding one-time charges, such as $208 million in restructuring-related adjustments and amortisation, the company earned $1.9 billion, or 68 cents per share, up 27 per cent from the same quarter last year.
Analysts were expecting HP to earn 64 cents per share on sales of $24.1 billion for the quarter, according to a survey by Thomson Financial.
Sales for the fiscal fourth quarter increased 7 per cent to $24.6 billion, compared with $22.9 billion last year.
HP also cracked $90 billion in annual revenue for the first time, accelerating the competition with IBM for the distinction of being the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales.