Analysts are expecting 89 cents earnings per share on $27.01 billion. That's an increase over the 86 cents EPS reported last year and small decline in revenue, which was $27.23 billion a year ago.
Investors also want HP to confirm it will hit EPS of $3.72 on about $110 billion in sales for the year. And they are looking for $1.05 EPS on $28.62 billion in sales next quarter. That would mean ending the year almost flat on revenues, down just over 1% from 2013.
When Whitman was new to the CEO job, she told investors to look for sales growth to happen in 2014, then told them growth wouldn't happen until 2015 or beyond. So they'll also be looking for news on that front.
Whitman did, however, trim debt and expenses and increase profits, not including expenses from extraordinary items like HP's ever-expanding layoffs. Earlier this year, HP said it will trim another 11,000-16,000 people from its payroll, cutting a total of 45,000-50,000 people, instead of the 27,000 it originally targeted. It also bumped back the completion date of the layoff.