A little pressure on HP (NYSE HPQ) printer results

Marketwatch has an article by Rex Crum entitled "PCs and printers to highlight H-P earnings report" which is a change, from a printer perspective. Followers of recent HP earnings communications will know that printers don't typically get a lot of play, including from the HP (NYSE HPQ) executives explaining the quarterly numbers, and from the press and analyst community covering the company. (There are exceptions to this, naturally.) This is especially true on the revenue side. The very healthy profit margins from the Imaging and Printing Group, especially those of the supplies businesses, are of course very important to HP's bottom line, and tracked and discussed somewhat more carefully. But still, the HP vs Dell (NASDAQ DELL) battle in the PC sector generally gets the most attention.

Looking at the Second Quarter of 2008, Crum's piece quotes a group of Banc of America analysts who are watching HP printer revenue numbers a little more closely this time. (Earnings will be announced after the markets' close on the 15th.)

At Banc of America Securities, a group of analysts see "some challenges in printing hardware," and believe that this could provide H-P with a challenge in growing sales of printer units. B. of A. believes that H-P's imaging and printing group will report sales of $7.48 billion, for an increase of 4% from a year ago, and there is some risk to the company meeting revenue estimates.