HP posted its financial data for its latest quarter yesterday and while revenues dipped in some divisions, overall profits rose for the company. HP saw its four main divisions decline in revenue including PCs, servers, software, and printers. The winner for HP was its services division that posted increased profits.

HP reports that after the close of the market its earnings jumped 14% to $2.4 billion or 99 cents per share for the three months ending on October 31. A year ago, the company had earnings of $2.1 billion breaking down to 84 cents per share.

Net income for the quarter totaled $1.14 per share after one-time items were removed. Overall sales fell 8% to $30.8 billion. When taking currency fluctuations out of the picture sales dropped 5%. Both of metrics beat what was expected by analysts.

MarketWatch reports that analysts had expected HP to report earnings of $1.13 per share, HP beat that mark by a penny per share. HP also gave an idea of what it expects for the current quarter – the company predicts about $29.6 billion to $29.9 billion in revenue and GAAP earnings in the area of 90 to 92 cents per share. HP expects adjusted earnings of $1.03 to $1.5 per share while analysts reportedly expect earnings of $1.04 per share.

HP CEO Mark Hurd said, "[The] economy remains challenging, but we see encouraging signs of recovery. We worked hard on our cost structure to emerge from this economic downturn more competitively positioned. Our portfolio is substantially stronger than when we entered the economic downturn."

HP rival Dell also posted its quarterly earnings recently. Dell didn’t fare as well as HP with profits declining 54% compared to the previous year.