Shulou(Shulou.com)11/24 Report--

CTOnews.com, Aug. 30 (Xinhua)-- Hewlett-Packard cut its full-year profit forecast on Tuesday as the company faced more than a year of downturn in the PC market and weak demand in China, and its shares fell 5.2% in after-hours trading.

Inflation and global economic uncertainty led to a drop in demand for consumer electronics, including personal computers, last year and led to an increase in inventory across the supply chain.

Enrique Lourdes, HP chief executive, said: "while we expect quarter-on-quarter growth to continue in the fourth quarter, the external environment has not improved as quickly as we expected, so we have adjusted our expectations."

Shipments of PCs in China, including desktops, laptops and workstations, have fallen 19% in the past few months, according to analyst firm Canalys.

Mr Lourdes added: "We don't think [a recovery in the Chinese market] will happen anytime soon. And at the moment, we have not included this recovery in any of our plans."

HP now expects adjusted earnings per share of between $3.23 and $3.35, compared with previous estimates of $3.30 to $3.50.

The company's third-quarter revenue fell 9.9% from a year earlier to $13.2 billion (CTOnews.com note: currently about 96.228 billion yuan), below analysts' expectations of $13.37 billion.

However, the company achieved an adjusted earnings of 86 cents a share in line with analysts' expectations by controlling costs. Total costs and expenses also fell by 8.6% compared with the same period last year. The company said it would still meet its three-year cost savings target of 40 per cent by the end of the current fiscal year.

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