Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. (HPE.US) Q4 revenue hits record high as demand for AI servers surges, driving performance beyond expectations.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.'s (HPE.US) earnings in the fourth quarter exceeded analysts' expectations, primarily due to significant growth in server revenue. The financial report shows that the company's Q4 revenue reached a record $8.46 billion, a 15% year-on-year increase, surpassing the average expectation of $8.26 billion. Net income was $1.34 billion, or $0.99 per share, a significant year-on-year increase. With some items excluded, earnings per share were $0.58, higher than Wall Street's average expectation of $0.56. The highlight of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.'s financial report is the strong growth in server revenue, which increased by 32% to $4.7 billion compared to the previous year, exceeding analysts' expectations. While revenue in the Intelligent Edge division decreased by 20% to $1.1 billion year-on-year, revenue from the cloud computing division increased by 18% to $1.6 billion. The company expects revenue to increase by about 15% in the next quarter, higher than the analysts' general expectation of 14%, with earnings per share expected to be between $0.47 and $0.52, and the average expectation being $0.48. In terms of product innovation, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. launched new servers with AMD chips in October, designed to support AI clusters for tasks such as training large language models. AI system revenue grew by 16% this quarter, reaching $1.5 billion, showing an increasing demand for high-performance computing in the market, which is also driving the development of hardware manufacturers such as Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co., Dell Technologies, Inc. Class C (DELL.US), and Super Micro Computer, Inc. (SMCI.US). In terms of acquisitions, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. plans to acquire Juniper Networks, Inc. and focus on the networking business. This $14 billion deal has attracted the attention of U.S. competition regulators, but the company expects the transaction to be completed by early 2025 and has received unconditional approval from almost all jurisdictions around the world, including the EU, UK, Australia, and South Korea. CEO Antonio Neri emphasized that the company is closely cooperating with the U.S. Department of Justice. As of Thursday's closing, Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co.'s closing price was $21.65, with a year-to-date increase of 28%.