Hewlett Packard Enterprise delivers a welcome surprise

PALO ALTO, Calif. — Hewlett Packard Enterprise on Tuesday delivered earnings and sales that exceeded Wall Street’s expectations, putting the wraps on a quarter highlighted by speculation that Chief Executive Meg Whitman might leave the technology giant for Uber.

After the stock market closed, HPE said that for its fiscal third quarter it earned 31 cents per share on $8.2 billion in revenue, which topped analysts’ forecasts of a profit of 26 cents a share on sales of $7.5 billion.

During the same period a year ago, HPE earned 40 cents a share on $8 billion in revenue.

In a statement, Whitman called the results “encouraging” and said they showed HPE is making progress with its latest business strategy.

“With better execution, we drove overall revenue growth,” Whitman said. “There’s more work to do, but we are on the right track.”

HPE said its results were led by its enterprise group and its $6.8 billion in sales, which rose 3 percent from a year ago. Software sales fell 3 percent, to $718 million, while financial services revenue of $897 million climbed 10 percent on a year-over-year basis.

The results came less than a week after HPE finalized the spinoff of most of its software business to British software company Micro Focus in a deal valued at $8.8 billion.

As a result of the software spinoff, HPE cut its full-year earnings forecast to a range of $1.36 to $1.40 a share from a previous estimate of $1.46 to $1.56 a share.

HPE also said that for its fourth quarter, it expects to earn between 26 cents and 30 cents a share, while analysts had forecast HPE to earn 40 cents a share for the period that ends in October.

In after-hours trading, HPE shares rose as much as 5 percent.