The manufacturer recorded total sales of $15.6bn (£11.2bn) for the three-month period to 31 January 2021, up by 7% year-on-year and by 3% on the previous quarter.
Revenue in the firm’s printing division was up by 7% from $4.72bn in Q1 last year to $5.04bn, also representing an increase of 5% on the previous quarter.
Commercial hardware sales were down by 11% year-on-year to $957m – albeit up 4% on the previous quarter – while consumer hardware leapt by 55% to $941m. Sales of supplies, the largest part of the division by revenue, increased by 3% to $3.15bn.
HP’s personal systems division, which comprises workstations, notebooks and desktops and other, saw net revenue increase by 7% year-on-year in Q1, from $9.89bn to $10.6bn.
The company’s Q1 net earnings climbed from $678m, or 47 cents per share, a year ago, to $1.07bn, or 83 cents per share.
Profits in the printing segment climbed by 32.4% year-on-year, from $754m to $998m, while profits in personal systems increased by 14.5%, from $662m a year ago to $758m.
The company’s overall profits jumped by 47.6% year-on-year in Q1, from $878m a year ago to $1.3bn.
In a webcast held following the publication of the results yesterday afternoon (25 February), HP president and chief executive Enrique Lores said: “HP had an exceptional start to the year with strong revenue and profit growth in Q1. We are benefitting from the strength of our portfolio and the diversity of our businesses.
“We continue to evolve our business model to meet changing customer needs, while expanding into adjacencies to grow our addressable market. And we are driving an aggressive transformation agenda by rigorously managing our costs, while investing to drive future growth. Simply put, we are doing what we said we would do, and our strategy is working.
He added the company’s printing division was off to “a terrific start to the year”.
“This quarter demonstrated the power of print to help people learn, create and perform,” said Lores.
“Our strong consumer business is a clear competitive advantage as hybrid work and school becomes the norm. We have seen that people who didn’t have home printers went and bought them, and people sign up for Instant Ink in record numbers, accelerating an already growing part of our business.”
He added: “Commercial print improved in Q1 with most product categories showing sequential revenue growth. In Q4, total print market units grew 6%. We continue to expect a gradual recovery in the overall commercial print market though the pace might be uneven given the varying pace of economic recovery.”
HP Inc’s share price climbed by 5.9% from $27.44 to $29.06 yesterday afternoon. It stood at $28.19 at the close of trading.
