HP's Outlook

Hewlett-Packard released some strong first-quarter revenues yesterday, to get back to a topic we haven't discussed much lately. Wall Street had forecast HP's first-quarter 2010 revenues of $30.01 billion, but the number actually came in at $31.2 billion. (Earnings were disappointing, however, coming in at 96 cents a share after Wall Street had forecast $1.06.)

Even more impressive is the way HP raised its outlook for 2010. The company now says 2010 revenue will be somewhere between $121.5 billion and $122.5 billion, up from its previous estimate of $118 billion to $119 billion. The Wall Street revenue estimate was $120.3 billion. So HP has upgraded its outlook from less than the Wall Street consensus to the point where it now expects to beat that consensus.

Remember, much of stock movement is based on beating expectations. For a company to put forth numbers it knows are better than the Street's takes remarkable confidence. And for HP to show that kind of confidence in this economy is good news for all of us.